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Portal:Wetlands

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Wetlands Portal

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Introduction

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. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink and shoreline stability. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, and the Pantanal in South America. The water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens; and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, and varzea.

The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to inform people about wetland issues.

Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they also play a role in water-sensitive urban design.

More about Wetlands ...
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Selected article

Excavation of morta from Sava river in Croatia.
Excavation of morta from Sava river in Croatia.
Bog-wood, also known as abonos and morta, especially amongst pipesmokers, is a material from trees that have been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay by the acidic and anaerobic bog conditions, sometimes for hundreds or even thousands of years. The wood is usually stained brown by tannins dissolved in the acidic water. Bog-wood represents the early stages in the fossilisation of wood, with further stages ultimately forming lignite and coal over a period of many millions of years. Bog-wood may come from any tree species naturally growing near or in bogs, including oak (Quercus – "bog oak"), pine (Pinus), yew (Taxus), swamp cypress (Taxodium) and kauri (Agathis). Bog-wood is often removed from fields etc. and placed in clearance cairns. It is a rare form of timber that is "comparable to some of the world's most expensive tropical hardwoods".

Soils that are mostly wet, sandy, gravel and clay-like -- usually found above high underground waters -- are the most suitable habitats for oak forest. These forests thrive best on lowland and slight upland soils of the diluvial geological era, the valleys of river basins being especially suitable sites for this type of oak.

Variations in the water level, floods, marshes formation promote the growth of oak trees. Because of a continuous change of the direction of the river flow on a greater or lesser degree, the mainstreams weave through the valleys constantly forming live meanders. In its meandering course, the river undermines the banks covered with trees, which fall into the river and are swept away in the water. When the trunk gets trapped by its branches and roots in the river bed, over time layers of mud, sand and gravel cover it. Deprived of oxygen the wood undergoes the process of fossilization and a long process of morta formation. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various wetland-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Law

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Roseate spoonbills have decreased by 90% since the 1930s
Roseate spoonbills have decreased by 90% since the 1930s
Credit: Lee Karney, released to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Roseate spoonbills have decreased by 90% since the 1930s.
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Did you know...

that the Ramsar Convention is a treaty for the conservation of wetlands?
... that the Ramsar Convention is a treaty for the conservation of wetlands?

(Pictured left: An egret eating a lizard.)

Other "Did you know" facts... Read more...
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Pen & Earth
Pen & Earth
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