Scoping Focus Ecosystem

The focus ecosystem for intervention will likely fall in one of the following three categories:

1. Ecosystems with near-permanent water cover (such as lakes, rivers, or streams)

2. Ecosystems with seasonal water cover (such as wetlands or flood plains)

3. Dominantly terrestrial systems (such as forests, grasslands, or woodlands)

In practice, many restoration projects that are medium to large-scale, will impact more than one type. For example, restoration of a river channel by removing the concrete channel will impact both the aquatic body of water and the riparian areas (type 1 and 2 below).

Ecosystems with near-permanent water cover

These consist of standing or flowing bodies of water, with a community of aquatic plants and animals adapted to the dynamics of that aquatic ecosystem. Examples of this will be lakes or rivers and streams. By near-permanent water cover means that while the extent and depth of water will change through the year, however, some portion of the water body is always above ground.

Ecosystems with seasonal water cover

These consist of freshwater ecosystems such as wetlands, which may not appear, for many parts of the year, to have any standing water. Also, this would include ecosystems at the edge of the lakes and rivers that are flooded seasonally. Floodplains, riparian areas, marshes, swamps, and bogs -- all fall under this category.

Dominantly terrestrial systems

These consist of terrestrial ecosystems upstream of freshwater ecosystems and can be considered as part of the watershed of the freshwater bodies. Precipitation (such as rainfall or snowfall) that falls on these terrestrial ecosystems is partitioned into surface runoff, infiltration (absorbed by the ground) and evapotranspiration (evaporated back to atmosphere) based on the plant cover, slope and soil dynamics of the terrestrial ecosystem.