Impacts of groundwater extraction on calcareous fen floristic quality

Abstract

Groundwater withdrawal has increased over the past several decades throughout the U.S. Upper Midwest, yet impacts of pumping on groundwater-dependent wetlands remain understudied. Here, we compared measures of floristic quality, hydrologic conditions, and nutrient availability in pairs of more-impacted fens and less-impacted fens throughout Wisconsin. Floristic quality was significantly lower in more-impacted fens than in less-impacted fens, the result of the disappearance of rare and specialist species and the increase in richness and cover of non-native and weedy species. Plots within more-impacted fens generally had lower root-zone volumetric water content, greater depth to water table, and higher available nitrogen and phosphorus than within less-impacted fens, although nonuniformly among or within sites. Lower volumetric water content predicted plot-level declines in floristic quality, richness of rare or specialist species, an increase in the number of non-native or problematic species, and an increase in cover of non-native and problematic species. Our results strongly suggest that groundwater withdrawals have substantial negative impacts on nearby fen quality and furthering imperilment of several species they contain.