The intricate workings of natural wetlands are slowly yielding their secrets to scientists applying a number of experimental approaches. The largest wetlands restoration project ever attempted is being planned for the Florida Everglades. The $685 million project involves 55 separate projects that scientists and engineers will develop and coordinate over the next two decades to try to reestablish the Everglades' unique wetland landscape. This unprecedented effort has focused new attention and intensity on an issue that scientists working with constructed wetlands view as unresolved: Can humans create bogs, swamps, and marshes that fully duplicate all the complex functioning of natural wetlands? The Everglades restoration project as well as smaller scale efforts to restore habitat in San Diego Bay and studies under way at experimental wetlands aim to provide clues about how wetlands function.
展开▼
