Portal:Wetlands

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Wetlands Portal

Introduction

A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink and shoreline stability. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, and the Pantanal in South America. The water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens; and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, and varzea.

The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to inform people about wetland issues.

Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they also play a role in water-sensitive urban design.

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A salt marsh.

In ecology, a halosere is a succession in a saline environment. An example of a halosere is a salt marsh.

In a river estuary, large amounts of silt are deposited by the ebbing tides and inflowing rivers.

The earliest plant colonizers are algae and eel grass, which can tolerate submergence by the tide for most of the 12-hour cycle and which trap mud, causing it to accumulate. Two other colonizers are Salicornia and Spartina, which are halophytes, i.e. plants that can tolerate saline conditions. They grow on the inter-tidal mudflats with a maximum of four hours' exposure to air every 12 hours.

Spartina has long roots enabling it to trap more mud than the initial colonizing plants and Salicornia, and so on. In most places this becomes dominant vegetation. The initial tidal flats receive new sediments daily, are waterlogged to the exclusion of oxygen, and have a high pH value.

The sward zone, in contrast, is inhabited by plants that can only tolerate a maximum of four hours submergence every day (24 hours). The dominant species there are sea lavender and other numerous types of grasses. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various wetland-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A black alder swamp in Germany (from Swamp)
Image 2Snapping turtles are one of the many kinds of turtles found in wetlands. (from Wetland)
Image 3Precipitation accumulates in many bogs, forming bog pools, such as Koitjärve bog in Estonia. (from Bog)
Image 4A bog in Ostfriesland (from Bog)
Image 5Bog-wood and boulders at the Stumpy Knowe near South Auchenmade, Ayrshire, Scotland (from Bog)
Image 6Fog rising over the Mukri bog near Mukri, Estonia. The bog has an area of 2,147 hectares (5,310 acres) and has been protected since 1992. (from Wetland)
Image 7A marsh in Jyväskylä, Finland (from Marsh)
Image 8Marshlands are often noted within wetlands, as seen here at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City. (from Wetland)
Image 9Carnivorous plants, such as this Sarracenia purpurea pitcher plant of the eastern seaboard of North America, are often found in bogs. Capturing insects provides nitrogen and phosphorus, which are usually scarce in such conditions. (from Bog)
Image 10Vernal pools are ponded only during the wetter part of the year. (from Marsh)
Image 11Kakerdaja Fen, Estonia (from Fen)
Image 12Many species of evergreen shrub are found in bogs, such as Labrador tea. (from Bog)
Image 13Marsh Arabs poling a mashoof (from Swamp)
Image 14Marsh in shallow water on a lakeshore (from Marsh)
Image 15A bog in Lauhanvuori National Park, Isojoki, Finland (from Bog)
Image 16Avaste Fen, Estonia. Sedges dominate the landscape, woody shrubs and trees are sparse. (from Fen)
Image 17Pantanal in Brazil (from Swamp)
Image 18Dernford Fen, Cambridgeshire (from Fen)
Image 19Wetlands contrast the hot, arid landscape around Middle Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. (from Wetland)
Image 20White water lilies are a typical marsh plant in European areas of deeper water. (from Marsh)
Image 21Sphagnum with northern pitcher plants at Brown's Lake Bog, Ohio, US (from Bog)
Image 22The wetlands of Cape May, New Jersey, US, comprise an extensive hydrological network that makes them an ornithologically important location to study the many birds which use the preserve as a place to nest. (from Wetland)
Image 23Small extreme rich fen in southwestern Minnesota. The white flowers, Parnassia glauca, are a fen indicator species in Minnesota. (from Fen)
Image 24Aerial view of prairie potholes (from Marsh)
Image 25Viru Bog in Lahemaa National Park, Estonia, which is rich in raised bogs (from Bog)
Image 26Inside a mangrove canopy, Salt Pan Creek, New South Wales (from Swamp)
Image 27Wicken Fen, England. Grasses in the foreground are typical of a fen. (from Fen)
Image 28Tourbière du Lac-à-la-Tortue (fr), ombrotrophic, Quebec, Canada (from Bog)
Image 29Sunrise at Viru Bog, Estonia (from Wetland)
Image 30Difference between swamp and marsh (from Swamp)
Image 31Peat bog and peat to dry, L'Isle-aux-Coudres, Quebec, Canada, 1976 (from Bog)
Image 32Sugar Fen, Norfolk (from Fen)
Image 33Spaulding Fen, Wisconsin. (from Fen)
Image 34Sphagnum moss and sedges can produce floating bog mats along the shores of small lakes. This bog in Duck Lake, Oregon, US, supports populations of English sundew (Drosera anglica). (from Bog)
Image 35Marshlands are often noted within wetlands, as seen here in the New Jersey Meadowlands at Lyndhurst, New Jersey, U.S. (from Marsh)
Image 36Many kinds of birds nest in marshes; this one is a yellow-headed blackbird. (from Marsh)
Image 37The Sitniki peat bog in Russia recultivated after industrial use (from Bog)
Image 38Many species of frogs live in wetlands, while others visit them each year to lay eggs. (from Wetland)
Image 39Humid wetland in Pennsylvania before a rain (from Wetland)
Image 40The Linnaistensuo Mire, a nature reserve swamp in Lahti, Finland. (from Swamp)
Image 41An expanse of wet Sphagnum bog in Frontenac National Park, Quebec, Canada. Spruce trees can be seen on a forested ridge in the background. (from Bog)
Image 42Aerial image of Carbajal Valley peat bogs, Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina (from Bog)
Image 43A wet meadow adjacent to Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino Mountains, California (from Marsh)
Image 44Bud of water lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), an aquatic plant (from Wetland)
Image 45A small swamp in Padstow, New South Wales, Australia (from Swamp)
Image 46Wetland at the Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Massachusetts, United States, in February (from Wetland)
Image 47A raised bog in Ķemeri National Park, Jūrmala, Latvia, formed approximately 10,000 years ago in the postglacial period and now a tourist attraction. (from Bog)
Image 48A freshwater swamp in Florida, United States (from Swamp)
Image 49Blanket bog in Connemara, Ireland (from Bog)
Image 50Swamp in southern Louisiana (from Swamp)
Image 51Bog with October morning mist in Mukri, Estonia (from Bog)
Image 52A salt marsh in Scotland (from Marsh)

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Pantanal

Credit: User:Filipefrazao

Pantanal Mato Grosso Brasil.

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Did you know...

... that shrub swamps are transitional between fens and swamps?

(Pictured left: Blackwater River in Canaan Valley, West Virginia.)

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v t e River morphology
Large-scale features	Alluvial plain Drainage basin Drainage system (geomorphology) Estuary Strahler number (stream order) River valley River delta River sinuosity
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