How Many Animals Lose Their Homes When We Fill In Wetlands
Classification and Types of Wetlands
Classification of Wetlands
Used by U.Due south. Fish and Wildlife Service
I commonly used classification system for wetlands was developed by Cowardin and is described in Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United states of america. The Cowardin system is used past the U.South. Fish and Wild fauna Service for the National Wetlands Inventory. In this organization, wetlands are classified past landscape position, vegetation cover and hydrologic regime. The Cowardin system includes 5 major wetland types: marine, tidal, lacustrine, palustrine and riverine.
Used by U.S. Ground forces Corps of Engineers
Another common wetland classification system, used past the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was developed past Brinson and is described in A Hydrogeomorphic Classification for Wetlands. As the title implies, wetlands are classified past their geomorphic setting, ascendant water source (e.yard. precipitation, groundwater or surface water) and hydrodynamics. The hydrogeomorphic (HGM) includes five major wetland types: riverine, slope depressional, apartment and fringe.
Types of Wetlands
- Marshes
- Swamps
- Bogs
- Fens
Marshes
- Not-Tidal Marshes
- Tidal Marshes
Description of Marshes
Marshes are defined as wetlands oft or continually inundated with water, characterized by emergent soft-stemmed vegetation adapted to saturated soil conditions. There are many different kinds of marshes, ranging from the prairie potholes to the Everglades, coastal to inland, freshwater to saltwater. All types receive well-nigh of their h2o from surface water, and many marshes are also fed by groundwater. Nutrients are plentiful and the pH is usually neutral leading to an abundance of found and animal life. Nosotros have divided marshes into ii primary categories: non-tidal and tidal.
Functions & Values of Marshes
Marshes recharge groundwater supplies and moderate streamflow past providing water to streams. This is an especially important function during periods of drought. The presence of marshes in a watershed helps to reduce harm caused past floods by slowing and storing alluvion water. Every bit h2o moves slowly through a marsh, sediment and other pollutants settle to the substrate or floor of the marsh. Marsh vegetation and microorganisms also use backlog nutrients for growth that can otherwise pollute surface h2o such as nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer.
Non-Tidal Marshes
Clarification
Non-tidal marshes are the most prevalent and widely distributed wetlands in N America. They are mostly freshwater marshes, although some are brackish or element of group i. They oftentimes occur along streams in poorly drained depressions and in the shallow water forth the boundaries of lakes, ponds and rivers. Water levels in these wetlands generally vary from a few inches to two or three feet, and some marshes, like prairie potholes, may periodically dry out completely.
Highly organic, mineral rich soils of sand, silt, and clay underlie these wetlands, while lily pads, cattails (see photo), reeds and bulrushes provide excellent habitat for waterfowl and other pocket-sized mammals, such as Red-winged Blackbirds, Bully Bluish Herons, otters and muskrats. Examples of non-tidal marshes are: Prairie potholes, playa lakes, vernal pools and wet meadows.
Functions & Values
Due to their loftier levels of nutrients, freshwater marshes are i of the most productive ecosystems on earth. They can sustain a vast array of establish communities that in turn support a wide multifariousness of wild animals within this vital wetland ecosystem. As a issue, marshes sustain a diversity of life that is disproportionate with their size. In add-on to their considerable habitat value, non-tidal marshes serve to mitigate flood damage and filter backlog nutrients from surface runoff.
Status
Unfortunately, similar many other wetland ecosystems, freshwater marshes have suffered major acreage losses to human development. Some have been degraded by excessive deposits of nutrients and sediment from structure and farming. Severe flooding and nutrient degradation to downstream waters have often followed marsh destruction and deposition. Such environmental problems prove the vital roles these wetlands play. This realization has spurred enhanced protection and restoration of marsh ecosystems, such every bit the prairie potholes and the Everglades.
Tidal Marshes
Description
Tidal marshes can be establish along protected coastlines in middle and loftier latitudes worldwide. They are most prevalent in the U.s. on the eastern coast from Maine to Florida and continuing on to Louisiana and Texas along the Gulf of United mexican states. Some are freshwater marshes, others are brackish (somewhat salty), and still others are saline (salty), but they are all influenced by the motility of bounding main tides. Tidal marshes are ordinarily categorized into two distinct zones, the lower or intertidal marsh and the upper or high marsh.
In saline tidal marshes, the lower marsh is normally covered and exposed daily by the tide. Information technology is predominantly covered by the alpine form of Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). The saline marsh is covered by water only sporadically and is characterized past Curt Smoothen Cordgrass, Spike Grass and Saltmeadow Rush (Juncus gerardii). Saline marshes support a highly specialized ready of life adapted for saline conditions.
Functions & Values
Tidal marshes serve many important functions. They buffer stormy seas, slow shoreline erosion and are able to absorb excess nutrients earlier they reach oceans and estuaries. Tidal marshes as well provide vital food and habitat for clams, crabs and juvenile fish, besides as offering shelter and nesting sites for several species of migratory waterfowl.
Condition
Pressure to fill up in these wetlands for coastal development has led to meaning and continuing losses of tidal marshes, especially along the Atlantic coast. Pollution, especially about urban areas, also remains a serious threat to these ecosystems. Fortunately, most states have enacted special laws to protect tidal marshes, but diligence is needed to clinch that these protective measures are actively enforced.
Swamps
- Forested Swamps
- Shrub Swamps
Description of Swamps
A swamp is whatever wetland dominated by woody plants. There are many different kinds of swamps, ranging from the forested Scarlet Maple, (Acer rubrum), swamps of the Northeast to the extensive bottomland hardwood forests plant along the sluggish rivers of the Southeast. Swamps are characterized by saturated soils during the growing season and standing water during certain times of the twelvemonth. The highly organic soils of swamps form a thick, black, nutrient-rich environs for the growth of h2o-tolerant trees such equally Cypress (Taxodium spp.), Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), and Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica). Some swamps are dominated by shrubs, such as Buttonbush or Smooth Alder. Plants, birds, fish, and invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp, crayfish, and clams require the habitats provided by swamps. Many rare species, such equally the endangered American Crocodile, depend on these ecosystems as well. Swamps may be divided into two major classes, depending on the blazon of vegetation present: shrub swamps and forested swamps.
Functions & Values of Swamps
Swamps serve vital roles in flood protection and nutrient removal. Floodplain forests are especially loftier in productivity and species diverseness because of the rich deposits of alluvial soil from floods. Many upland creatures depend on the affluence of food found in the lowland swamps, and valuable timber tin be sustainably harvested to provide building materials for people.
Status
Due to the nutrient-rich soils present in swamps, many of these fertile woodlands take been tuckered and cleared for agriculture and other development. Historically, swamps have been portrayed as frightening no-man'due south-lands. This perception led to the vast destruction of immense tracts of swampland over the past 200 years, such as the devastation of more half of the legendary Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia.
Forested Swamps
Forested swamps are plant throughout the United States. They are often inundated with floodwater from nearby rivers and streams. Sometimes, they are covered by many feet of very slowly moving or standing water. In very dry years they may stand for the only shallow water for miles and their presence is critical to the survival of wetland-dependent species like Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa), River Otters (Lutra canadensis) and Cottonmouth Snakes (Agkistrodon piscivorus). Some of the common species of trees found in these wetlands are Red Maple and Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) in the Northern U.s., Overcup Oak (Quercus lyrata) and Cypress in the Southward, and Willows (Salix spp.) and Western Hemlock (Tsuga sp.) in the Northwest. Bottomland hardwood swamp is a proper noun commonly given to forested swamps in the south central United states of america.
Shrub Swamps
Shrub swamps are similar to forested swamps except that shrubby vegetation such as Buttonbush, Willow, Dogwood (Cornus sp.) and Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris) predominates. In fact, forested and shrub swamps are often found side by side to ane another. The soil is frequently water logged for much of the year and covered at times by as much every bit a few feet of h2o because this blazon of swamp is establish along slow moving streams and in floodplains. Mangrove swamps are a type of shrub swamp dominated past mangroves that covers vast expanses of southern Florida.
Bogs
- Northern Bogs
- Pocosins
Description of Bogs
Bogs are one of Due north America'southward about distinctive kinds of wetlands. They are characterized by spongy peat deposits, acidic waters and a floor covered past a thick carpeting of sphagnum moss. Bogs receive all or most of their water from atmospheric precipitation rather than from runoff, groundwater or streams. As a result, bogs are low in the nutrients needed for establish growth, a condition that is enhanced by acid forming peat mosses.
There are ii primary ways that a bog tin develop: bogs can form equally sphagnum moss grows over a lake or pond and slowly fills it (terrestrialization), or bogs can form as sphagnum moss blankets dry out state and prevents water from leaving the surface (paludification). Over time, many feet of acidic peat deposits build up in bogs of either origin. The unique and demanding concrete and chemic characteristics of bogs outcome in the presence of found and animal communities that demonstrate many special adaptations to depression food levels, waterlogged conditions, and acidic waters, such as cannibal plants.
Functions & Values of Bogs
Bogs serve an important ecological function in preventing downstream flooding by absorbing precipitation. Bogs support some of the most interesting plants in the U.s. (like the carnivorous Sundew) and provide habitat to animals threatened by human encroachment.
Status of Bogs
Bogs in the United states of america are mostly plant in the glaciated northeast and Great Lakes regions (northern bogs) only also in the southeast (pocosins). Their acreage declined historically as they were tuckered to be used as cropland and mined for their peat, which was used as a fuel and a soil conditioner. Recently, bogs take been recognized for their role in regulating the global climate by storing large amounts of carbon in peat deposits. Bogs are unique communities that can be destroyed in a matter of days but crave hundreds, if not thousands, of years to form naturally.
Northern Bogs
Description
Northern bogs are generally associated with low temperatures and brusque growing seasons where aplenty atmospheric precipitation and high humidity crusade excessive moisture to accumulate. Therefore, most bogs in the United States are institute in the northern states. Northern bogs ofttimes grade in old glacial lakes. They may take either considerable amounts of open water surrounded by floating vegetation or vegetation may have completely filled the lake (terrestrialization).
The sphagnum peats of northern bogs cause especially acidic waters. The result is a wetland ecosystem with a very specialized and unique flora and fauna that can abound in these conditions called acidophiles. Notwithstanding, bogs support a number of species of plants in add-on to the characteristic Sphagnum Moss, including Cotton Grass, Cranberry, Blueberry, Pine, Labrador Tea and Tamarack. Moose, deer, and lynx are a few of the animals that can be constitute in northern bogs. The Greater Sandhill Crane, the Sora Track, and the Dandy Greyness Owl depend on bogs for survival.
Pocosins
Clarification
The discussion pocosin comes from the Algonquin Native American discussion for "swamp on a hill." These evergreen shrub and tree dominated landscapes are establish on the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Virginia to northern Florida; though, nearly are constitute in North Carolina. Usually, in that location is no standing water present in pocosins, but a shallow water table leaves the soil saturated for much of the year.They range in size from less than an acre to several thousand acres located between and isolated from old or existing stream systems in most instances.
Because pocosins are found in wide, flat, upland areas far from large streams, they are ombrotrophic like northern bogs, meaning rain provides most of their water. Too like the bogs of the far due north, pocosins are constitute on waterlogged, nutrient poor and acid soils. The soil itself is a mixture of peat and sand containing large amounts of charcoal from periodic burnings. These natural fires occur because pocosins periodically become very dry in the bound or summer. The fires are ecologically important considering they increment the diverseness of shrub types in pocosins.
The most common plants are evergreen copse (Loblolly Bay, Cerise Bay and Sweet Bay), and evergreen shrubs (titi, fetterbush and zenobia). Pocosins provide important habitat for many animals, including some endangered species similar the red-cockaded woodpecker. They are especially important as the last refuge for Black Bears in littoral Virginia and N Carolina and the Red Wolf has recently been reintroduced in North Carolina pocosins.
Functions & Values
Habitat is the virtually valuable office of Pocosins. Some pocosins are very large and difficult to develop, and and so they remain largely undisturbed. As a result, they are a oasis for species adapted to living in unaltered forests. As more and more than land is developed in the Eastern United States, pocosins are becoming ever more than valuable refuges for wildlife.
The slow movement of water through the dense organic thing in pocosins removes excess nutrients deposited by rainwater. The same organic matter besides acidifies the water. This very pure water is slowly released to estuaries, where it helps to maintain the proper salinity, nutrients and acerbity. This procedure is important to aid maintain healthy fish populations of import to both commerce and recreation. Pocosins are also sources of valuable timber and fuel, but these uses tin can harm or destroy pocosins if they are not carried out responsibly.
Condition
Historically, pocosins were mostly threatened past agriculture. Today, timber harvesting, peat mining, and phosphate mining join agriculture equally the biggest threats to the remaining undisturbed pocosins.
Fens
Description of Fens
Fens, are peat-forming wetlands that receive nutrients from sources other than atmospheric precipitation: usually from upslope sources through drainage from surrounding mineral soils and from groundwater movement. Fens differ from bogs because they are less acidic and accept higher nutrient levels. Therefore, they are able to support a much more diverse found and animal community. These systems are often covered by grasses, sedges, rushes and wildflowers. Some fens are characterized by parallel ridges of vegetation separated by less productive hollows. The ridges of these patterned fens form perpendicular to the downslope management of water movement. Over time, peat may build up and separate the fen from its groundwater supply. When this happens, the fen receives fewer nutrients and may become a bog.
Like bogs, fens are mostly a northern hemisphere phenomenon -- occurring in the northeastern United states, the Nifty Lakes region, the Rocky Mountains and much of Canada -- and are generally associated with depression temperatures and short growing seasons, where aplenty atmospheric precipitation and loftier humidity cause excessive moisture to accumulate.
Functions & Values of Fens
Fens, like bogs, provide important benefits in a watershed, including preventing or reducing the risk of floods, improving water quality and providing habitat for unique plant and creature communities.
Condition of Fens
Like most peatlands, fens experienced a decline in acreage at a charge per unit of virtually eight percent from 1950 to 1970, mostly from mining and draining for cropland, fuel and fertilizer. Considering of the large historical loss of this ecosystem type, remaining fens are that much more rare, and it is crucial to protect them. Information technology is of import to recognize that while mining and draining these ecosystems provide resources for people, upwards to 10,000 years are required to form a fen naturally.
Source: https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/classification-and-types-wetlands
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