ABSTRACT:
The volume of water in 213 small wetlands on 648 ha of the Altamont moraine in northeastern South Dakota was measured in April 1982, immediately after the vernal thaw. Water depths were measured to the nearest cm at intervals along transects through each wetland. The surface area of each wetland was obtained from low-level, black-and-white aerial photographs obtained at the same time the water depth measurements were made. The 213 wetlands comprised 50% of the water surface area that occurred in the study area and contained an estimated 19.58 ha-m (158.7 acre-feet) of water. The data are discussed in relation to what is known about prairie wetland hydrology. Values of intact prairie wetlands should be given serious consideration in water resource planning and development in the glaciated prairie region.
Footnotes
Daniel E. Hubbard is a resource specialist and Raymond L. Linder is unit leader with the South Dakota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, P.O. Box 2206, Brookings, South Dakota 57007. Funding for this study was provided by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project Number W-75-R. The authors thank E. N. Brady, L. J. Meyers, T. A. Thompson, B. A. Giron-Pendleton, G. W. Pendleton, and S. P. Riley for their assistance in data collection and analysis and D. D. Malo, C. G. Scalet, and W. A. Wentz for their review of the manuscript.
- Copyright 1986 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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