Wetland
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
In physical geography, a wetland is an environment that combines the properties of land and water[1]
That means wetlands are ecotones. They often host considerable biodiversity. Therefore several of them belong to the Global 200 ecoregions that the World Wide Fund for Nature listed for conservation.
Contents |
[change] Wetland types
- A bog or muskeg is acidic peat land (peat bog).
- A moor was originally the same as a bog but has come to be associated with this soil type on hill-tops.
- A moss is a raised bog in Scotland
- A fen is a freshwater peat land with chemically basic (which roughly means alkaline) ground water. This means that it contains a moderate or high proportion of hydroxyl ions (pH value greater than 7).
- A carr is a fen which has developed to the point where it supports trees. It is a European term, mainly applied in the north of the UK.
- A fresh-water marsh's main feature is its openness, with only low-growing or "emergent" plants. It may feature grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. It is an open form of fen.
- A coastal (salt)-marsh may be associated with estuaries and along waterways between coastal barrier islands and the inner coast. The plants may extend from reed in mildly brackish water to salicornia on otherwise bare marine mud. It may be converted to human use as pasture (salting) or for salt production (saltern).
- A swamp is wetland with more open water surface and deeper water than a marsh. In North America, it is used for wetlands dominated by trees and woody bushes rather than grasses and low herbs, but this distinction does not necessarily apply in other areas, for instance in Africa where swamps may be dominated by papyrus.
- A dambo is a shallow, grass-covered depression of the central and southern African pigmy which is waterlogged in the rainy season, and usually forms the headwaters of a stream or river. It is marshy at the edges and at the headwater, but maybe swampy in the centre and downstream.
- A mangrove swamp or mangal is a salt or brackish water environment dominated by the mangrove species of tree, such as Sonneratia.
- A paperbark wetland is a fresh or brackish water environment dominated by the Melaleuca tree.
- A bayou or slough are southern United States terms for a creek amongst swamp. In an Indian mangrove swamp, it would be called a creek.
- A constructed wetland is artificially contrived wetland, intended to absorb flash floods, clean sewage, enhance wildlife or for some other human reason.
[change] Notes
- ↑ It is "at the interface between truly terrestrial ecosystems and truly aquatic systems making them inherently different from each other yet highly dependent on both" (Mitsch & Gosselink, 1986).
[change] References
Ullah, S; Faulkner, SP. 2006. Denitrification potential of different land-use types in an agricultural watershed, lower Mississippi valley. ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING 28 (2): 131-140.
