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Wetlands: Swamps, Marshes Posters
for geography and social studies classrooms, home schools.
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world geography > landforms > WETLANDS | water < social studies
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Wetlands are areas of standing water that support aquatic plants. A wetland forms when there is extra water in an area – more water than can be absorbed by the ground, evaporated, or drained quickly into a river, stream, or ocean. Wetlands act as natural filters in watersheds, helping to purify and clean water before it enters a lake, river, or ocean.
One-third of the plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered depend on wetlands.
Wetlands perform two important functions: they “sink carbon” - or prevent carbon from going into the atmospehere, and store and regulate water.
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands – (The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance) is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
The Ramsar Convention is the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem. The treaty was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and the Convention's member countries cover all geographic regions of the planet.
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| What is a wetland? Bog, Swamp, Marsh.
Wetlands are areas of standing water that support aquatic plants. A wetland forms when there is extra water in an area – more water than can be absorbed by the ground, evaporated, or drained quickly into a river, stream, or ocean. Wetlands act as natural filters in watersheds, helping to purify and clean water before it enters a lake, river, or ocean.
One-third of the plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered depend on wetlands.
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Wetlands have soggy and sometimes flooded soil. Wetlands fall into three main types: marshes (soft-stemmed grasses and rushes), swamps (trees and shrubs), and bogs (peat). Wetland Facts -
• Not permanent
• Found in all climates,
• Exist on the finges of other bodies of water
• Plants have adjusted to wet soil
• Coastal varieties are salt marshes and mangrove swamps
• Support a wide variety of animals.
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| Wetlands have a key role to play in the carbon cycle and thus in climate change mitigation, as well in helping people to adapt to climate change. Peatlands cover only 3-4% of global land area but are recognized as an important carbon sink holding 25-30% of the carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, twice as much as the world’s forests; their drainage and conversion to other uses is an important source of emissions. There is increasing evidence that other wetlands – such as mangroves and saltmarshes – also act as important carbon sinks.
Maintaining intact wetlands that can store a lot of carbon is essential – as is the restoration of degraded wetlands, especially those that act as carbon sinks and those that can help people in adapting to climate change.
"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. Water saturation largely determines how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil. Wetlands may support both aquatic and terrestrial species. The prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favor the growth of specially adapted plants and promote the development of characteristic wetlands soils."
-- EPA, America's Wetlands: Our Vital Link Between Land and Water
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