Created wetlands

Imagine being asked to advise a mining company about implementing their vision to convert an area devastated by mining into a visually attractive waterbird habitat that would become an essentially self-sustaining ecosystem in perpetuity, and a showcase for wetland management, rehabilitation after mining and public education. Two of the authors of this chapter were involved in just such an advisory committee for a company that is mining mineral sand rich in rutile and ilmenite near the town of Capel in Western Australia. Mining had created an undulating landscape in the sandy soil, and where this dipped below the water table temporary or permanent lakes were created, giving rise to a ‘created wetland’.

The task bristled with problems. Was the water table constant or seasonal? Were there sufficient nutrients to maintain biological production in the wetlands, or was there so much that undesirable algal blooms would form? What food chains and food webs could be established, and would these meet the objective of sustaining water bird populations?

This chapter provides information needed to address such questions, which are relevant not just to local problems such as managing the Capel Wetlands Centre, but to much broader questions of water quality, and management of rivers, lakes and scarce water resources.

Chapter aims

In this chapter we explain how the physical parameters of aquatic systems, described in the previous chapter, result in different types of habitats in still or flowing waters.