What are wetlands?
As the name suggests, wetlands are lands where the soil becomes saturated with water or covered with water for at least part of the year. Wetlands may be fed by runoff, rivers and streams, rainfall and other forms of precipitation, seepage from groundwater, or a combination of all of these sources. Some types of wetlands normally have standing water in them. Other types are flooded daily or seasonally, and may appear to be dry land at certain times of the year. The water table is at or near the surface of a wetland, and the soils are hydric (wet and low in oxygen). Hydric soils have distinctive color, texture and, sometimes, odor. The presence of hydric soil means an area was a wetland at some time in its history although it does not guarantee that the area is currently a wetland. Most resident plants are known as hydrophytes (plant species adapted to life in water or in saturated soils).
Wetlands are lands that are wet at least part of the year because their soils are either saturated or covered with a shallow layer of water. Wetlands include a variety of natural systems, such as marshes, swamps, bottomland hardwoods, pocosins and wet flats. While each wetland type looks and functions differently, all wetlands share certain properties, including characteristic wetland vegetation, hydric soils and hydrologic features. Wetlands usually are covered by plants, ranging from marsh grasses to trees. All wetland plants must tolerate living in saturated soil without oxygen during parts of the growing season. Many wetland plants are called “hydrophytes,” because they can live with their roots in water. Soils that have developed in wetlands are known as hydric soils, because they have formed under water-logged conditions. They have distinctive color, texture and, sometimes, odor. The presence of hydric soil means an area was once a wetland; however, it does not by itself mean tha
Wetlands are places within the landscape where water accumulates long enough to affect the condition of the soil or substrate and promote the growth of wet-tolerant plants. Places called wetlands include rivers, creeks, swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas, which, in effect, are components of the drainage system of the land. By recognizing wetlands as parts of a drainage system, it can be more easily anticipated where these areas can be found within the landscape and to begin understanding the important functions that wetlands provide wildlife and humans.
Swamps, marshes, bogs, fens, sloughs, and bottomlands – we have many names for wetlands, but what makes a wetland a wetland? A single, comprehensive, universally accepted definition does not exist which concisely and accurately defines all wetlands. Because wetlands have diverse mixes of vegetation, from tidal marshes on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts to bottomland hardwood forests along the Patoka River, varying degrees of water, from cypress swamps in Posey County to wet prairie in Lake County, and exist in many parts of the landscape, such as isolated pothole wetlands in Steuben County to backwater wetlands along the Wabash River, one definition could not possibly fit all wetlands. Regardless, all wetlands do have some common traits, which help answer the question – what is a wetland. In general, wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil for part or all of the year, including the growing season for plants. Wetlands are i
A wetland is an area where water (groundwater, surface water, or ice) is present in significant enough quantity to support a dominance of vegetation that occurs in primarily saturated conditions. Commonly though of as wet meadows, marches, swamps and bogs, wetlands are transitional areas between water bodies and uplands, and are defined by their plant communities, hydrology and soils. Wetlands are areas that may be publicly or privately owned.
