Relative Role of Lake and Tributary in Hydrology of Lake Superior Coastal Wetlands

Despite the documented importance of hydrodynamics in influencing the structure and function of Great Lakes coastal wetlands, systematic assessments of coastal wetland hydrology are lacking. This paper addresses this gap by describing patterns in lake and tributary inputs, water residence times, and mixing regimes for a suite of western Lake Superior wetlands that differ in the amount of tributary and seiche flow they receive. We show that variability in tributary flows among wetlands and over time is far greater than variability in seiche-driven water movements, and that the amount of tributary flow strongly influences wetland hydrology via effects on water mixing and residence times, seiche size, mouth closures, and relative amounts of main and off-channel areas. Wetland seiche amplitudes were reduced in systems with small mouth openings and wetland mouth size was correlated with tributary flow. All wetlands experienced seiche-driven water level oscillations, but there was lake water intrusion only into those wetlands where tributary outflow was small relative to the seiche-driven inflow. Wetlands in settings exposed to long-shore sediment transport exhibited periodic mouth closures when stream flows were low. The absolute and relative size of lake and tributary inputs must be explicitly considered in addition to wetland morphology and landscape setting in studies seeking to understand determinants of coastal wetland structure, function, and response to anthropogenic stressors.