Essay on Wetlands

Baldwin swamp is an urban wetland, located in the heart of Bundaberg, providing a habitat to a range of organisms. The environment is rich in biodiversity; with more than 150 species of birds, variety of vegetation/plants as wells as creatures and mammals ranging from tiny aquatic wrigglers to bats, which have recently inhabited the area. Wetlands can be swamps, boys and or areas next to creeks. The Baldwin swamp can be best described as a network of ponds/swamps that channels into landscapes of grassland. This area has a significant ecological impact as the relationships among the organisms in relation to their food webs is vital to their survival. Abiotic factors such as humidity, soil, pollution, Ph levels, temperature, dissolved oxygen

Giving full credit to restricting the Mississippi River as the culprit for loss of wetlands is not accurate. The booming oil and gas exploration of the 1970’s and 1980’s merits a name on the marquee as well. The pipelines and canals used to transport the resources to the outside world placed a great deal of stress on the fragile wetlands. Erosion from the barges in and out of the marshes as well as the salt water allowed into the fresh water, providing a precarious habitat for fresh water species – flora and fauna alike. Plants provide root systems to hold soil in place. Fish and fowl provide an economy for the area. Enter

A wetland is a place with hydric soils that has been saturated by water for a minimum of 14 days during the growing season. Common names for a wetland are a swamp, bog, or marsh.

If the government designates certain areas within a community to be "wetlands," and therefore illegal to build upon, what happens to land not classified as "wetlands" within the community?

Scene in Fig. 1.1., the Chesapeake Bay is substantial in size; at roughly 64,000 miles, it contains roughly fifty rivers and thousands of streams and creeks. It encompasses parts of 6 states, including all of Washington, DC. The Chesapeake Bay is what is known as a watershed, an area that contributes to the drainage to a water body, stream, river, lake or ocean. Rainwater that falls within the 64,000 square miles that is the Chesapeake Bay will subsequently travel through many streams and rivers, eventually making its way into the largest estuary system in the United States.

Based on research completed by University of Minnesota soil scientists, the state mandates that every wetland should be protected by a 50-foot buffer zone. The City of Lilliput, a rural town located 30 miles north of St. Cloud, Minnesota, increased the buffer zone to150 feet in1990 within their municipality. The rationale behind Lilliput’s increase was because the town is zoned for predominantly rural uses, i.e. farming and cattle ranching. Due to the animal wasted and farmers’ use of pesticides on their crops, the Town Council felt that increasing the buffer around surrounding wetlands would better protect it from these sources of contamination than would the state minimum of 50

Wetlands and rivers are found in low-lying areas or alongside rivers, lakes and streams. They provide a water and food source and are a habitat for many native and migratory birds.

The wetlands does only help the wildlife and humans it helps from damaging property, Now you think I'm crazy but I'm not ok, now listen, wetland can help us by storm like hurricanes', floods, and many more. Take for example, in New Orleans, Louisiana, has suffered extremely consequence of the hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful hurricane in the entire untied states history. Scientist believe that hurricane would did less damage if they had more wetlands, but in the 1800's they destroy the wetlands for more land and because the mosquitos that cause the yellow

Louisiana should be concerned about the wetlands because of the wildlife and fisheries. Without it, Louisiana would not be able to supply seafood and wildlife. Another concern, is the land going under and people could lose their homes. According to Allured and Martin, “the destruction of the wetlands came from the coastal and offshore oil and gas development” (p.332). Also, there is some thought that humans play a role in the destruction. According to Allured and Martin, “swamps symbolize as dark and chaotic places of the earth” and “marsh as a type of wet area that harbored disease” (p. 333). The importance of ascertaining the cause of the vanishing wetlands is to help restore the wetlands and protect from a hurricane

Many wetlands are beginning to die out. Look at the everglades for example they’ve been here for 5000 years! Back then they were pretty and all new, but now it is starting to look like the famous scene from the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Ark" says the article "Are the Everglades Forever? My first reason is that Its majestic waters will turn into swampy waters filled with snakes and who knows what. Also if wetlands die out there will be habitat loss until they cannot find home and eventually dies out plus people are releasing animals out into the wild which is not a good thing because then animals start to compete for food The final reason we should care about wetland is that they provide thing for us to such as the everglades provides

Soil type and adaptation of that soil. What is different about wetland soil? How can we recognize it?

Wetlands are a critical part of our natural environment. Since the Northern Harriers live by wetlands, wetlands are special because “They protect our shores from wave action, reduce the impacts of floods, absorb pollutants and improve water quality”-enviorment.gov. They provide habitat for animals and plants and many contain a wide diversity of life, supporting plants and animals that are found nowhere else. In this region you can find animals such as turtles, opossums, muskrats, beavers, raccoons, foxes, prairie dogs, lizards, small birds, foxes, and insects. In marshlands they can be found by lakes, streams, and swamps.

Wetland soils are extremely varied. They are found from the tropics to the subarctic. They can be seasonal or year-round, freshwater or saltwater, organic or mineral. The one thing that all of them have in common is that for at least part of the year they are saturated with water. This saturation has a significant impact on the soil's physics, chemistry, and biota. However, over the past century more than half of all the wetlands in the United States has been drained for agriculture and other uses such as construction. When the soils are drained the physics, chemistry, and biota are drastically changed. This paper is an attempt to

4. Dried leaves were retrieved and weighed. The total tissue loss from initial weight before submersion until now was recorded. Class inputs data and a class mean and standard deviation of tissue loss/ day was gathered for both wetlands for each species

In this article it speaks about many different types of indicators that one could see in order to determine the ecological state of the wetland by my factors such as the biodiversity, pollution levels, the fauna and flora in the wetland. This relates to our wetland as we have a large biodiversity in our wetland with little pollution as well as plants such as reeds growing which indicate a healthy wetland. We also occasionally see a large variety of birds in our wetland therefore another indicator that our wetland is healthy.