Wetlands - Swamps, Marshes, Shallow Open Water, Fens, Bogs, Wetland Ecology, Losses Of Wetlands - Types of wetlands
vegetation associated vary
Wetlands are low-lying, depressional ecosystems that are permanently or periodically saturated with water at or close to the surface. The vegetation of wetlands must be adapted to the physical and chemical stresses associated with flooded substrates. The most common types of wetlands are swamps, marshes, shallow open waters, and mires, the latter consisting of peat-accumulating fens and bogs. Wetlands vary greatly in their productivity, mostly because of intrinsic differences in the rate of supply of nutrients. Wetlands provide important habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals. However, wetlands are rapidly disappearing because they are being drained and in-filled for agricultural, urbanization, and industrial purposes. Wetlands are also being degraded by nutrient loading, which causes eutrophication, and by pollution associated with inputs of toxic chemicals and organic materials. Losses of wetlands and the biodiversity that they support are an extremely important aspect of the environmental crisis.
Wetlands can be characterized on the basis of their hydrology, morphology, water chemistry, and vegetation. All of these factors can vary regionally and locally, depending on the climate, character of the surrounding watershed, and the species that are present (that is, the biogeographic region). The major kinds of wetlands are described below, with an emphasis on North American types.
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Swamps are forested or shrub-dominated wetlands, usually associated with low-lying, periodically or permanently flooded areas around streams and rivers. Water flows through swamps, although the movement can sometimes be imperceptible. In southeastern North America, alluvial and floodplain swamp forests are sometimes extensive, and are typically dominated by such tree species as bald cypress (Taxod…
Marshes are a relatively productive wetland in which the vegetation is dominated by tall, emergent, graminoid (that is, grass-like) plants. Typical plants of North American marshes include cattails (e.g., Typha latifolia), reeds (e.g., Phragmites communis), bulrushes (e.g., Scirpus validus), and saw-grass (Cladium jamaicense). Marshes dominated by these plants are relatively productive, because th…
This is a heterogenous wetland type, transitional from deeper open-water habitats such as lakes, and more completely vegetated wetlands such as marshes. Shallow, open-water wetlands are known locally by names such as ponds, sloughs, and potholes. These are small bodies of surface water, less than about 7 ft (2 m) in depth, and free of emergent plants, but often having floating-leaved vegetation. T…
Wetlands are dynamic ecosystems, transitional between terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Over time, most wetlands gradually in-fill because of the cumulative deposition of sediment and peat. Consequently, wetlands are most numerous in places where geological forces, such as glaciation or the migration of oxbow rivers, periodically create conditions that are favorable to their formation. The ecologi…
All wetlands have great intrinsic value as natural ecosystems, and they all support species of plants and animals that occur nowhere else. Consequently, wetlands have great value in terms of biodiversity. Sometimes, the biodiversity-related importance of particular types of wetlands is a matter of their relative abundance, in the regional context. For example, although bogs and fens can be extreme…
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