Wetlands
What is a wetland?
Very generally, a wetland is land which is saturated with water for all or some part of the year. Wetlands include marshes, bogs, swamps, lakes, streams, rivers, vernal pools and other damp spots. Estuaries are not strictly wetlands. They are the transition between wetlands and the open ocean. In many places in the United states wetlands are protected. To protect a wetland it must be identified as a wetland officially. This causes legal definitions to come into play. Often these definitions get caught up in the number of days a particular spot is wet and what sort of flora and fauna it has.
Table 1.
A Basic Delineation of Some Wetland Types. (Smith 1996, Kricher and Morrison 1988.)
| Name | Description | Dominant Plant Speeches |
| Marsh | Dominated by emergent herbaceous vegetation | reeds sedges grasses |
| Peatland | Peatlands (Mire) dominated by decaying organic matter split into 2 groups bogs and fens | Depends on type of Peetland |
| Bog | Mire fed by precipitation that have low nutrients and pH | Sphagnum moss |
| Fen | Mire fed by water moving through mineral oil providing nutrients | Sedges |
| Swamp | Forested wetland variable water depth | Woody Vegetation |
| River/stream | Flowing water, not tidal, normally not highly vegetated in the main channel | Riparian zone woodlands, grasslands, submerged aquatic vegetation in slower edge part of channel |
| Vernal pool | Seasonal pool of water in frosted spots that don't drain well | annuals, forest floor detritus |
| Estuary | where rives and stems meet the ocean in a relatively protected place and measurably dilute the salt water making it brackish. | Depends on type of estuary |
Wetlands are diverse and complex systems. Many of them are suffering from overload of pollutants or encroachment of human activities. This eventually effects the migration of birds, as well as the permanently local flora and fauna.
More information on wetlands.
Bogs
Bogs come in may sorts of constructions. They form on flat places with depressions to hold the water, or on slopes associated with slow seeping springs or streams. One of the typical kinds of bogs in New England is a kettlehole bog. Kettlehole bogs typically have a central pond, and a floating peat mat which is surrounded by a border of short tress in a coniferous forest. Quaking bogs are those that have a free floating peat mat. In lab situations the dried organic soil from bogs burns quite well. Dried peat is used as fuel in some parts of the world. Bogs often contain carnivorous plants as well as the Sphagnum mosses. The carnivorous plants include the pitcher plants, sundews, and bladderworts. (Johnston 1985) Bogs may also serve as a carbon sink or source depending on temperature and light levels according to Jill L. Bubier. Therefore peatlands may be very important in regulation of the earths CO2 levels.
Estuaries form in sheltered areas where fresh water enters a salt water environment. They function as nurseries for many types of fish and aquatic invertebrates. Estuaries contain some of the world's areas of highest productivity for shellfish, fish, and game birds. They are used as migratory corridors by birds and fish. Estuaries are economic centers for humans, who use them to collect food and for recreation. When an estuary gets sick it not only disrupts the life of the animals and plants in it. It deflates economy of the country whose people use it as a source of income. The Chesapeake is largest estuary in the United States of America.
CHESAPEAKE Links
Other Estuary Links
Replacement of wetlands - Mitigation banking
What is Mitigation Banking?
KATY-CYPRESS
WETLANDS MITIGATION BANK Description and legal explanation.
Mitigation banking is the practice of replacing distorted areas
with man made new areas after development.