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A general definition provided by the textbook Wetlands describes a fen as "a peat-accumulating wetland that receives some drainage from surrounding mineral soil and usually supports marsh like vegetation." [8] Three examples are presented below to illustrate more specific definitions for the term fen.
A fen is located on a slope, flat, or in a depression and gets most of its water from the surrounding mineral soil or from groundwater (minerotrophic). Thus, while a bog is always acidic and nutrient-poor, a fen may be slightly acidic, neutral, or alkaline, and either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich. [ 8 ]
Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. [3] The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. [2] 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.
Over centuries there is a progression from open lake, to a marsh, to a fen (or, on acidic substrates, valley bog), to a carr, as silt or peat accumulates within the lake. Eventually, peat builds up to a level where the land surface is too flat for ground or surface water to reach the center of the wetland.
This is a list of bogs, wetland mires that accumulate peat from dead plant material, usually sphagnum moss. [1] Bogs are sometimes called quagmires (technically all bogs are quagmires while not all quagmires are necessarily bogs) and the soil which composes them is sometimes referred to as muskeg ; alkaline mires are called fens rather than bogs.
A fen is another wetland form, which is created by a seep from below. The fen is affected by the calcium included in the seepage. It is usually associated with glacial moraines. Vegetation can be either herbaceous plants or heavily forested. The best known fen in the dunes is mistakenly called Cowles Bog, rather than more appropriately, Cowles ...
Fen meadows have been severely impacted by farming, resulting in hydrological changes, acidification, and nutrient pollution, leaving few preserved into the 21st century. [1] Compositional transformations and increased groundwater flow have the greatest effect this habitat and can degrade peat. [ 2 ]
Blanket bog on the Yell, Shetland Islands, with some peat working. Blanket bog or blanket mire, also known as featherbed bog, is an area of peatland, forming where there is a climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing peat to develop not only in wet hollows but over large expanses of undulating ground.