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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.
It is a poetical or dialect word meaning a sheet of standing water, a lake or a pond (OED). The OED's fourth definition ("A marsh, a fen.") includes wetland such as fen amongst usages of the word which is reflected in the lexicographers' recording of it. In a quotation from the year 598, mere is contrasted against moss (bog) and field against fen.
The wetland receives most of its water and nutrients from precipitation (ombrotrophic) rather than surface or groundwater (minerotrophic). The wetland is nutrient-poor (oligotrophic). The wetland is strongly acidic (bogs near coastal areas may be less acidic due to sea spray). Because all bogs have peat, they are a type of peatland.
The National Trust is marking 125 years since it acquired its first nature reserve.
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 ]
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 ]
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]
England population density and low elevation coastal zones. The Fens are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.. The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England is a area of former marshland of low lying land supporting a rich ecology and numerous species.