Biological monitoring: Wetlands
Minnesota supports an estimated 9.3 million acres of wetland. Nearly one-fifth the area of Minnesota is wetland. Alaska is the only state that has more wetlands than Minnesota. Not only does Minnesota have a significant wetland resource, but also Minnesota supports many different kinds of wetlands.
Though wetlands are prominent in Minnesota’s landscape an understanding of their quality or pollution tolerance is limited. Traditional water chemistry parameters like dissolved oxygen or total phoshorus can be highly variable in wetlands and often of little direct use in assessing wetland impacts or quality. However, wetland organisms and plants have adapted to the variable wetland environment and proven to be useful indicators of wetland quality.
