Denitrification in Natural, Converted, and Restored Wetlands of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.

In the last several decades, there has been considerable effort to protect and restore wetlands throughout the USA.  These efforts have required significant investment of both private and public funds.  Accordingly, it has become important to document the effectiveness of this protection and restoration.  The mid-Atlantic wetland assessment project is part of the Conservation Effectiveness Assessment Program (CEAP) of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.  One of the important functions of wetland is the conversion of excess nitrogen into di-nitrogen via denitrification. This paper reports an assessment of soil denitrification within this project.  Based on these initial data, the wetland types did not statistically differ in DEA. However, there were differences in DEA among the soils from different landscape positions.  The wettest sites had the highest mean rates of DEA.