Characterization of Headwater Seeps in the Frances Palk State Nature Preserve

Hydrology is generally considered to be the primary controlling factor for the development and persistence of wetlands (Kusler and Kentula, 1989; Mitsch and Gosselink, 1993). However, characterizing wetland hydrology is difficult to perlorm and often compromised due to constantly changing hydrologicaVenvironmental conditions and to potential error associated with water budget accounting. Moreover, subtle changes in aquifer heterogeneity and hydraulic conductivity, within individual wetlands and between wetlands of different landscape units, influence flow patterns and further contribute to the complexity of these systems (Hunt et al., 1996). As a result of these difficulties, net groundwaterfluxes have been commonly ignored or estimated merely as a residual term in water budget analysis and through semi-quantitative applications of Darcy's law (Harvey and Odum, 1990; Owen, 1995). In addition, generalized hydrologic characteristics for specific wetlands types are often assumed without regard to regional and local variability associated with landscape position and geomOlphic controls (Brinson, 1993; Cole et al., 1997). The hydrologic and ecosystem functions of wetlands are governed not only by the controls found within the wetland boundary, but are linked physically and mOlphologically to the adjacent uplands and environs. Given these factors, increased efforts to characterize wetland hydrogeology within the bounds of landscape units are needed, particularly as a means for evaluating wetland functionality.