Conservation & Sustainability Flashcards

Which landscape-scale approach to conservation prioritizes protecting large, connected areas of wetland habitat rather than isolated patches?

Answer: Landscape connectivity and corridor planning

Landscape connectivity planning protects movement corridors between wetland complexes, supporting wildlife populations and ecological resilience at a broader scale.

Prairie potholes in the Upper Midwest are especially significant for conservation because they:

Answer: Support a disproportionately large share of North American waterfowl production relative to their area

The Prairie Pothole Region produces roughly 50–80% of North American migratory waterfowl despite covering a fraction of the continent's land area.

In the context of ecosystem services valuation, which category best describes a wetland's role in removing nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural runoff?

Answer: Regulating services (water quality improvement)

Water quality improvement through nutrient uptake and denitrification is classified as a regulating ecosystem service under the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework.

The 'mitigation hierarchy' for wetland impacts under Corps/EPA guidelines lists which sequence in descending order of preference?

Answer: Avoidance, minimization, compensatory mitigation

The mitigation hierarchy requires applicants to first avoid wetland impacts, then minimize unavoidable impacts, and only then compensate for remaining losses.

Which term describes the process by which a degraded wetland recovers its ecological functions through natural processes without active human intervention?

Answer: Passive restoration (natural recovery)

Passive restoration relies on removing stressors (e.g., drainage tiles, invasive species pressure) and allowing natural hydrological and biological processes to reestablish wetland functions.

Which organization administers the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) maps used widely in U.S. conservation planning?

Answer: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)

The USFWS produces and maintains NWI maps, which classify wetlands using the Cowardin system and are a primary baseline tool for wetland conservation planning.

What is 'in-lieu fee mitigation' as an alternative compensatory mitigation mechanism?

Answer: A program where permittees pay funds to an approved sponsor that conducts restoration on their behalf

In-lieu fee programs collect money from permittees and direct it to a sponsor (often a government or nonprofit) that implements wetland restoration projects within the same watershed.