COMPARING MORPHOLOGIES OF CONSTRUCTED AND NATURAL WETLANDS ON APPALACHIAN RIDGETOPS IN THE DANIEL BOONE NATIONAL FOREST

Recently, natural ephemeral wetlands located on Appalachian ridgetops in the Danial Boone National Forest, Kentucky have been found to act as hotspots for shallow groundwater recharge. Conversely, constructed ridgetop wetlands lack this functionality and retain water on the surface. The United States Forest Service is interested in conservation and construction practices that improve the functionality of constructed wetlands. In this research, we mapped 5 ridgetop wetlands (3 natural and 2 constructed) and compared their morphologies in order to determine the characteristics that lead to different wetland functionalities. The maps were made using a GPS, an optical transit, and ArcGIS software to interpolate the data. Once the maps were created we verified them at each site to check accuracy and calculated our error using the optical transit. The maps were then used to determine topographic relief, watershed area, and open water area of the mapped locations. Watershed area was determined with a flow analysis, which also yielded runoff pathways. Soil morphologies were also analyzed. We studied the soil compaction with a penetrometer at each site, obtaining the compaction at 5cm depth intervals down to 60cm depth. Soil type was determined by digging a soil pit and describing soil color and texture. Our research found that the natural wetlands consisted of small closed depressions that had larger watershed areas and less compact soils. The constructed wetlands had more compact soil and berms that isolated the wetlands from their watershed areas.