Anzali Wetland Hydrology Monitoring to Detect the Effects of Land Use and Climate Change

Climate change and, in particular, its possible effects, have become a central issue in politics and science in the late20th century. Although climate has always changed, the new feature of the present situation is the expected speed of the change. This acceleration may induce significant changes in the wetlands. The wetland plays a key role as a habitat for many indigenous plant and animal species and as a temporary refuge for migratory birds during the winter. The Anzali wetland complex is a natural that supports an extremely diverse wetland flora and fauna in the southwest of Caspian Sea. The water levels and ecology of the wetlands are sensitive to atmospheric changes and to changes of agricultural practices in the surrounding fields. The Anzali wetland hydrological monitoring will help to detecting processes that control of water balance in the wetlands as well as to avoid undesired influence to the surrounding habitats in the long-term trends. The regional-scale monitoring is statistically related to climate data, but such analysis spread little light on the hydrological processes and has limited predictive value when climate and land use are changing. The hydrology monitoring system of the Anzali wetland had provided some important view to determine the effects of climate change and land use in this wetland in the north of Iran.