Reviews and syntheses: Variable inundation across Earth's terrestrial ecosystems
Abstract. The structure, function, and dynamics of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems are profoundly influenced by how often (frequency) and how long (duration) they are inundated with water. A diverse array of natural and human-engineered systems experience temporally variable inundation whereby they fluctuate between inundated and non-inundated states. Variable inundation spans extreme events to predictable sub-daily cycles. Variably inundated ecosystems (VIEs) include hillslopes, non-perennial streams, wetlands, floodplains, temporary ponds, tidal systems, storm-impacted coastal zones, and human-engineered systems. VIEs are diverse in terms of inundation regimes, water chemistry and flow velocity, soil and sediment properties, vegetation, and many other properties. The spatial and temporal scales of variable inundation are vast, ranging from sub-meter to whole landscapes and from sub-hourly to multi-decadal. The broad range of system types and scales makes it challenging to predict the hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology, and physical evolution of VIEs. Despite all experiencing the loss and gain of an overlying water column, VIEs are rarely considered together in conceptual, theoretical, modeling, or measurement frameworks and approaches. Studying VIEs together has the potential to generate mechanistic understanding that is transferable across a much broader range of environmental conditions, relative to knowledge generated by studying any one VIE type. We postulate that enhanced transferability will be important for predicting changes in VIE function in response to global change. Here we aim to catalyze cross-VIE science that studies drivers and impacts of variable inundation across Earth's VIEs. To this end, we complement expert mini-reviews of eight major VIE systems with overviews of VIE-relevant methods and challenges associated with scale. We conclude with perspectives on how cross-VIE science can derive transferable understanding via unifying conceptual models in which the impacts of variable inundation are studied across multi-dimensional environmental space.
Authors
- Margaret Ann Zimmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8287-1923)
- Tim Scheibe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8864-5772)
- Kelly L. Hondula (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1928-1442)
- Nate G. McDowell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2178-2254)
- Teri O’Meara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8132-9761)
- Kristin L. Jaeger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1209-8506)
- Beth A. Middleton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1220-2326)
- Inke Forbrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0632-7317)
- Joshua Ladau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1454-2225)
- Kenton Rod (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1818-9094)
- Scott Painter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0901-6987)
- Elizabeth Herndon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9194-5493)
- Kristin Boye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2087-607X)
- Ross Vander Vorste (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3423-5644)
- Julia Guimond (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0712-4378)
- Amy J. Burgin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8489-4002)
- Jon N. Sweetman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9849-7355)
- Corianne Tatariw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-7528)
- Daniel C. Allen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-0564)
- Anna Braswell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3677-0635)
- J. Abrahamson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5083-524X)
- Etienne Fluet‐Chouinard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4380-2153)
- Ellen Wohl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7435-5013)
- Maggi Laan
- Lauren Kinsman‐Costello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9168-8677)
- Michelle H. Busch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4536-3000)
- Peter Regier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8375-1314)
- Jillian M. Deines (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4279-8765)
- Joshua B. Fisher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4734-9085)
- James Stegen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9135-7424)
- Julianne Scamardo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1145-8960)
- Xingyuan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1928-5555)
- Anna Marshall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3043-8700)
- Kaizad Patel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6437-7809)
- Kevin Roche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1730-2294)
- Jianqiu Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1609-9004)
- Thibault Datry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1390-6736)
- Edward Bam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1494-8671)
- Erin Seybold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0365-2333)
- Li Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1641-3710)
Institutions
- Boise State University (US)
- Utah State University (US)
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- University of Wisconsin System (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Marine Biological Laboratory (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Kent State University (US)
- Iowa State University (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Chapman University (US)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (MA)
- Argos Intelligence (United States) (US)
- Rowan University (US)
- University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US)
- Washington State University (US)
- University of Toledo (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Biogeosciences
- Published
- 2025-02-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-995-2025
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.43
Funders
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory