Virtual landscape-scale restoration of altered channels helps us understand the extent of impacts to guide future ecosystem management.
Siddhartho Shekhar Paul, Eliza Maher Hasselquist, Amanda Jarefjäll, Anneli M Ågren
Author Information
Siddhartho Shekhar Paul: Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden. siddhartho.paul@slu.se. ORCID
Eliza Maher Hasselquist: Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden. ORCID
Amanda Jarefjäll: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden.
Anneli M Ågren: Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Skogsmarksgränd, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden. ORCID
Human modification of hydrological connectivity of landscapes has had significant consequences on ecosystem functioning. Artificial drainage practices have fundamentally altered northern landscapes, yet these man made channels are rarely considered in ecosystem management. To better understand the effects of drainage ditches, we conducted a landscape-scale analysis across eleven selected study regions in Sweden. We implemented a unique approach by backfilling ditches in the current digital elevation model to recreate the prehistoric landscape, thus quantifying and characterizing the channel networks of prehistoric (natural) and current (drained) landscapes. Our analysis detected that 58% of the prehistoric natural channels had been converted to ditches. Even more striking was that the average channel density increased from 1.33 km km in the prehistoric landscape to 4.66 km km in the current landscape, indicating the extent of ditching activities in the northern regions. These results highlight that man-made ditches should be accurately mapped across northern landscapes to enable more informed decisions in ecosystem management.
