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A wetland (aerial view) Wetland conservation is aimed at protecting and preserving areas of land including marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens that are covered by water seasonally or permanently due to a variety of threats from both natural and anthropogenic hazards. Some examples of these hazards include habitat loss, pollution, and invasive species.
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.
The degree of salinity in an estuary or delta is an important control upon the type of wetland (fresh, intermediate, or brackish), and the associated animal species. Dams built upstream may reduce spring flooding, and reduce sediment accretion, and may therefore lead to saltwater intrusion in coastal wetlands. [20]
The East Kolkata Wetlands (officially known as East Calcutta Wetlands) (22 0 27’ N 88 0 27’ E), are a complex of natural and human-made wetlands lying east of the city of Calcutta (Kolkata), of West Bengal in India. The wetlands cover 125 square kilometres and include salt marshes, and agricultural fields, sewage farms and settling ponds.
Wetlands are the home to a large number of bird, amphibian, insect, reptile, grass, and tree species that cannot inhabit any other system, making them at risk to endangerment, as wetlands are being destroyed for urban development and agriculture. [6] Wetlands help combat pollution and climate change, as they filter pollutants and store a large ...
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.
The life forms of a wetland system includes its plants and animals and microbes (bacteria, fungi). The most important factor is the wetland's duration of flooding. [1] Other important factors include fertility and salinity of the water or soils.
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.