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Upper Bigo Bog, Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda. A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat . Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation , due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia . [ 1 ]
There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog, and fen (bogs and fens being types of peatlands or mires). Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types. [1] Sub-types include mangrove forests, carrs, pocosins, floodplains, [1] peatlands, vernal pools, sinks, and many others. [22]
A quaking bog, schwingmoor, or swingmoor is a form of floating bog occurring in wetter parts of valley bogs and raised bogs and sometimes around the edges of acidic lakes. The bog vegetation, mostly sphagnum moss anchored by sedges (such as Carex lasiocarpa ), forms a floating mat approximately half a meter thick on the surface of water or ...
However, many classification systems include four broad categories that most wetlands fall into: marsh, swamp, bog, and fen. [1] While classification systems differ on the exact criteria that define a fen, there are common characteristics that describe fens generally and imprecisely.
During this change, a range of different landtypes such as swamp and marsh will succeed each other. [1] The succession from open water to climax woodland takes centuries or millennia. Some intermediate stages will last a shorter time than others. For example, swamp may change to marsh within a decade or less.
A mire is distinguished from a swamp by its lack of a forest canopy (though some bogs may support limited tree or bush growth, mires are dominated by grass and mosses), and from a marsh by its water nutrients and distribution (marshes are characterized by nutrient-rich stagnant or slow-moving waters; mire waters are located mostly below the ...
Luhasoo bog in Estonia.The mire has tussocks of heather, and is being colonised by pine trees.. This is a list of bogs, wetland mires that accumulate peat from dead plant material, usually sphagnum moss. [1]
The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo. [6]