Primary Species & Wetlands . by Mercedes Gillon

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Slide Notes

Primary Species & Wetlands .

Published on Nov 18, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

What is a wetland?
land consisting of marshes or swamps; saturated land.
Wetlands must have one or more of the following three: 1) at least periodically, the land supports predominantly hydrophytes;Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). 2) the substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soil; and 3) the substrate is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season of each year.

Photo by Steve Slater (Wildlife Encounters)

Characteristics
For an area to be classified as a wetland, the area must have one or more of the following three:
-The land supports plants, which are adapted to wet soil conditions;
-The base land is predominantly un-drained hydric soil;
The base consists of non-soil and is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season of every year.

Marsh
are wetlands that are permanently flooded or flooded during high water periods at the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, or ponds.
There are submersed, floating-leaved, or emergent vegetation, including cattails, pondweeds, water lilies, and various sedges, rushes, spike rushes, and grasses. Marshes can be subcategorized into emergent marsh or hemi marsh.

Photo by Stuck in Customs

1)Hemi Marsh
is found in deeper water, and is characterized by an open mix of floating-leaved vegetation scattered along with a submersed plant community.
2) Emergent marsh
is the marsh found around shorelines out to shallow water, and is generally characterized by up to 100% cover with upcoming plant species.

Photo by djwtwo

Bog
are basin wetlands for which precipitation is the only source of water, they are typically not fed by surfacing groundwater or streams. Bogs consist of sphagnum mosses, which may form a floating mat over deeper water that supports a rich assortment of other species adapted to acidic water conditions.

Photo by me'nthedogs

Swamp
These are inland wetland that come from slow moving streams, flat uplands and lake basins with water varying between 2.5 and 5cm of depth and are wetter in the rainy season than in the dry season. They have wide ranges of pH and nutrients. Generally rain fed swamps are acidic and poor in nutrients while alluvial swamps are rich in nutrients and have a neutral pH.

Photo by morak faxe

What is a Vernal pool?

A vernal pool is a contained basin depression lacking a permanent above ground outlet. In the Northeast, it fills with water with the rising water table of fall and winter or with the meltwater and runoff of winter and spring snow and rain. Many vernal pools in the Northeast are covered with ice in the winter months. They contain water for a few months in the spring and early summer. By late summer, a vernal pool is generally (but not always) dry.

Photo by The Marmot

Biological description of a vernal pool

because of its periodic drying, does not support breeding populations of fish. Many organisms have evolved to use a temporary wetland which will dry but where they are not eaten by fish. These organisms must use a vernal pool for various parts of their life cycle. If the species are using a body of water, then that water is a vernal pool.

Riparian area
According to Bellows (2003), healthy riparian areas have many different characteristics depending upon location, geology, landscape, and climate.

However, all healthy riparian areas have similarities that include:
-A thick growth of vegetation with diverse species of grasses, forbs (weeds), shrubs, and trees that cover the streambanks and provide shade.
-Land surrounding streambanks generally remains wet throughout most of the year except where streams cut through rocky terrain.
-Streambanks are more vertical and steep than flat and rounded.
-Stream flow levels vary only moderately throughout the year.
-Streamwater is relatively clear but contains debris from streambanks (leaves, twigs, or logs) that create pools and other habitat for fish and aquatic insects.
-A diversity of wildlife including fish, aquatic life, mammals, and birds.

Threats/Problems
Conversion of wetlands for commercial development, drainage schemes, extraction of minerals and peat, overfishing, tourism, siltation, pesticide discharges from intensive agriculture, toxic pollutants from industrial waste, and the construction of dams and dikes, often in an attempt at flood protection, are major threats to wetlands everywhere.

Mercedes Gillon