The Development of Soil and Microbial Communities in the Moses Creek Restoration Wetland in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Mitigation is a process in which restored or created wetlands are used to offset the loss of naturally functioning wetlands during land development projects.  Current time frames monitoring mitigation projects may not be long enough to completely evaluate wetland progression which may take decades if not centuries to reestablish.  The objective of this study was to examine how the Moses Creek Restoration Wetland is progressing towards a naturally functioning wetland (i.e., a reference site).  Within the restoration site, two locations, floodplain and standing water scrapes were sampled in 4 subplots each to determine if any differences could be observed between microhabitat created during the project.  The reference site for this study is located in the headwaters of Moses Creek and did not contain any microhabitat and thus was only sampled in 4 subplots of floodplain.  Soil cores of the top 10 cm were collected in the field and analyzed in the laboratory to determine if any statistical differences were observed.  Bulk density, carbon and nitrogen content, extractable nitrogen (both nitrate and ammonium), and microbial biomass carbon were the primary components tested.  One-way ANOVA was used to determine if any significant differences were observed (α = 0.05) on the measured parameters using SigmaStat 3.1.  Results indicate that the reference wetland had significantly higher carbon and nitrogen content and microbial biomass carbon, but lower bulk density than the floodplain and scrape within the restoration site (which were not significantly different).  Most of these differences can be explained by the limited time of development in the restoration site which was sampled during the second year following construction.  Continued monitoring of the Moses Creek Restoration Wetland will continue to further evaluate the progression of this restoration site.