Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs)

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Geographically isolated wetlands are known hotspots of biological diversity and serve unique ecological functions.

Relatively small compared to their surrounding landscapes, their potential value is disproportionate to the area they occupy.

GIWs may be subject to degradation by changes in frequency and duration of water availability.

Ichauway provides a unique opportunity to understand GIWs in a mature longleaf pine landscape.

Our approach to understanding uses a combination of geophysical techniques and instrumentation, water chemistry analyses, biological surveys, and studies of animals that inhabit GIWs.

When transferred to the adjacent developed landscape, these tools provide valuable insights to help understand impacts of wetland degradation and restoration of wetland function.

Key Publications

Atkinson, C. L., S. W. Golladay, and M. R. First. 2011. Water quality planktonic microbial assemblages of isolated wetlands in an agricultural landscape. Wetlands 31:885-894.

Cohen, M. J., I. Creed, L. Alexander, N. Basu, A. J. K. Calhoun, C. Craft, E. D’Amico, E. DeKeyser, L. Fowler, H. E. Golden, J. W. Jawitz, P. Kalla, L. K. Kirkman, C. R. Lane, M. Lang, S. G. Leibowitz, D. B. Lewis, J. Marton, D. L. McLaughlin, D. Mushet, H. Raanan-Kiperwas, M. C. Rains, L. Smith, and S. C. Walls. 2016. Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113:1978-1986.

Kirkman, L. K., S. W. Golladay, L. LaClaire, and R. Sutter. 1999. Biodiversity in southeastern seasonally ponded, isolated wetlands: management and policy perspectives for research and conservation. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 18:553-562.

Kirkman, L. K., P. C. Goebel, L. West, M. B. Drew, and B. J. Palik. 2000. Depressional wetland vegetation types: a question of plant community development. Wetlands 20:373-385.

Liner, A. E., L. L. Smith, S. W. Golladay, S. B. Castleberry, and J. W. Gibbons. 2008. Amphibian distributions within three types of isolated wetlands in Southwest Georgia. American Midland Naturalist 160:69-81. pdf

Martin, G. I., J. Hepinstall-Cymerman, and L. K. Kirkman. 2013. Six decades (1948-2007) of landscape change in the Dougherty Plain of Southwest Georgia, USA. Southeastern Geographer 53:28-49

Martin, K. L., and L. K. Kirkman. 2009. Management of ecological thresholds to re-establish disturbance-maintained herbaceous wetlands of the south-eastern USA. Journal of Applied Ecology 46:906-914.

Smith, L. L., A. L. Subalusky, C. L. Atkinson, J. E. Earl, D. M. Mushet, D. E. Scott, S. L. Lance, S. A. Johnson. 2018. Biological connectivity of seasonally ponded wetlands across spatial and temporal scales. Journal of The American Water Resources Association 1–20. doi: 10.1111/1752-1688.12682

Geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs)

Explore more in Water:

Geographically isolated wetlands are known hotspots of biological diversity and serve unique ecological functions.

Relatively small compared to their surrounding landscapes, their potential value is disproportionate to the area they occupy.

Key Publications

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