UW-Madison Hydroecology Lab

The wetlands in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge formed thousands of years ago as glaciers receded, providing invaluable ecosystem services. The area was ditched in the early 1900s to control the water and develop the rich, organic soil into farmland. This “drainage dream” era did not last long without healthy wetlands to protect from fires and floods, but the disturbance severed connections between aquifers, surface water, and floodplains. Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began plugging ditches to direct water back into natural channels. To support long-term management of restored peatlands, we began research to document soil properties and monitor hydrologic exchanges.

Fieldwork in the summer and fall of 2025 involved the installation of piezometers with pressure transducers at transects in unrestored, restored, and to-be-restored sites. Hydraulic conductivity testing will be performed on cores collected in the central peat pots and surrounding sand ridges. A combination of core data and quantified surface and groundwater fluxes will inform conclusions about restoration impact on hyporheic exchange regimes and floodplain characteristics. Enhanced surface and subsurface hydrologic connections provide flood mitigation, fire protection, carbon sequestration, and nutrient regulation benefits as peatlands partially regain water storage capacity