Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1-19. Ecotourism camp in the Okavango Delta
of Botswana. The tent structures are elevated on
wooden posts to minimize surface impact, and the
interior accommodations are quite comfortable. Photo
courtesy of M. Storm.
• Wetlands have many special properties
not adequately covered in biological
specialties.
• Wetlands of disparate types do have some
common properties.
• Wetland studies require an interdisciplinary
approach that may involve several subdisci-
plines not commonly included in university
academic programs.
• Strong scientii c understanding of many
facets is necessary for the development
of policy, regulation, and management of
wetlands.
Figure 1-20. S. DeGraaf prepares to place a soil-
temperature logger into a water-i lled hole
½ m deep
in a subalpine bog at
3200 m elevation, Colorado,
United States. Study site is part of a long-term climate
investigation. Photo by J.S. Aber.
Recent articles spanned the globe from ecohy-
drology of mires in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
(Grootjans et al. 2010) to a carbon-i ber-compos-
ite Byelorussian peat corer (Franzén and Ljung
2009). The open-access nature of this journal
illustrates the desire of some societies to
make their publications freely available to
everybody.
The scientii c organizations noted above are
large and international in character. Wetlands
exist throughout the world, so many smaller
scientii c organizations deal with local or
regional interests in more specialized ways. A
good example is Suoseura, the Finnish Peatland
Society. It serves as the Finnish National Com-
mittee of the IPS, organized the 12th Interna-
tional Peat Congress in 2004, and publishes the
journal Suo . The society has a membership of
approximately 450, clearly indicating that wet-
lands in general and peat in particular are major
scientii c issues for the small country of Finland.
Several wetland scientii c societies and publica-
tions support this multidisciplinary approach. A
major organization in North America is the
Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), which pub-
lishes the journal Wetlands . According to its
own description, it is “an international journal
concerned with all aspects of wetlands biology,
ecology, hydrology, soils, biogeochemistry, man-
agement, laws and regulations” (SWS 2010).
This description certainly highlights the many
disciplines and subjects of wetland research.
The International Peat Society (IPS) was con-
stituted in Canada and is now based in Finland.
The International Mire Conservation Group
(IMCG) is likewise based in Europe. Together
IPS and IMCG publish Mires and Peat , an online
journal (see http://www.mires-and-peat.net/).
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