Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. [19] The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. [18] The main types of wetland are defined based on the dominant plants and the source of the water. For example, marshes are wetlands dominated by emergent herbaceous vegetation such as reeds, cattails and sedges.
A simplified definition of wetland is "an area of land that is usually saturated with water". [14] More precisely, wetlands are areas where "water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season". [15]
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 .
Lacustrine wetlands- associated with a lake or other body of fresh water; Palustrine wetlands- freshwater wetlands not associated with a river or lake. The primary purpose of this ecological classification system was to establish consistent terms and definitions used in inventory of wetlands and to provide standard measurements for mapping ...
Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that contains ocean-derived salts in concentrations of less than 0.5 parts per thousand, and is non-tidal. [1] The word palustrine comes from the Latin word palus or marsh. [2] Wetlands within this category include inland marshes and swamps as well as bogs, fens, pocosins, tundra and floodplains.
Determining the boundary of wetland, whether jurisdictional under sections 404 or 10, or not jurisdictional but still meeting the technical definition of a wetland, that is having the soils, vegetation and hydrology criterion met is called a "wetland delineation", and generally is performed by college graduates with natural science or biology ...
In wetlands, nitrogen is used by the vascular and non-vascular vegetation to grow, therefore removing the nitrogen naturally and preventing a large amount of nitrogen from entering the coastal region creating anoxic habitats in the ocean. [28] Conservation of the brackish marsh wetlands can be a last resort to help prevent these potential problems.
An intertidal wetland is an area along a shoreline that is exposed to air at low tide and submerged at high tide. This type of wetland is defined by an intertidal zone and includes its own intertidal ecosystems .