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Unveiling Wetlands: Defining Soil, Plants, and Water Characteristics

Learn about the complex process of wetland delineation focusing on soil, plants, and water features. Discover key indicators, such as hydric soils, water-tolerant plants, and hydrologic regimes, to identify wetland areas globally.

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Unveiling Wetlands: Defining Soil, Plants, and Water Characteristics

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  1. Defining the Wetlands By: Sam Stengel, TJ Cuclasure and Kelsey Bechtel

  2. Wetland Delineation Soil, Plants and water characteristics are what define a wetland. Complicated process of delineating a wetland because of the changeable conditions of their conditions. Struggle for a delineation strategy.

  3. Hydric/Saturated Soils • Anaerobic conditions create noticeable soil characteristic. • Smell • Color • Water collection • Mottled coloring • “gleyed” soils • Oxidized rhizospeheres

  4. Water Tolerant Plants • Plants are the most obvious indicators of a wetland. • Emergent reeds, Lilies and cypress trees. • Plants have to adapt to find ways to capture and transport oxygen. • The “knees” of a tree(cypress) • Shallow or exposed roots • Plants with hollow tubes(emergent reeds) • Floating plants(lilies) • Swollen tree trunks(cypress trees)

  5. Hydrologic Regime • Water is the defining circumstance of a wetland. • Flooded, damp, or saturated below the surface. • Sings of wetland sites: • Kneel test(spongy ground) • Mud/mud cracks in low spots • Water stained tree trunks • Stained vegetation • Depression where water might collect • Gullies or stream channels

  6. Global Distribution of Wetlands Six percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by wetlands. This is about 3.5 million square miles, that just a little smaller then the US. In order for an area to be considered as a wetland, it has to be dominated by the presence of water.

  7. The dominant presence of water Water levels in a wetland is either at, just below or above ground level. These water conditions cause the soil in the area to be super saturated.

  8. The Soil The water levels create perfect conditions for hydric soils. Hydric soil- low levels of oxygen

  9. Plant Types Hydrophytic Plants grow best in these water and soil conditions. These plants have adapted to thrive in this type of environment.

  10. How to Classify a Wetland Major Categories of Wetlands Coastal: • Marine-open coast, salt water; • ex. marshes, mangrove, swamps • Estuarine-open coast, salt and fresh water mix; • ex. Deltas, lagoons

  11. Coastal Wetland

  12. How to classify a Wetland Major Categories of Wetlands Inland: • Riverine-fresh water; • ex. bottomlands, freshwater marshes, floodplains • Lacustrine-fresh water; • ex. Lakes, deltas • Palustrine- fresh water; • ex. Ponds, bogs, peatlands

  13. Inland Wetland

  14. Common Types of Wetlands Bog: no significant inflows or outflows (no current); water comes from precipitation Bottomlands: along streams and rivers in floodplains (overflow) Marsh: fresh or saltwater; vegetation; frequently flooded; found near larger body of water

  15. Bog Bottomlands Marsh

  16. Common Types of Wetlands Peatland: accumulates partially decayed plant matter (peat) Pothole: shallow marsh-like pond; formed by an erosion of rock or soil Swamp: vegetated by trees and shrubs; shallow slow streams; isolated depressions in soil or rock Delta: landform at the mouth of a river, form a deposit of sediment

  17. Peatland Pothole Swamp Delta

  18. Works Cited • www.usafair.org • www.treehugger.com • www.nps.gov • http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/coastal-wetlands-worldwide-may-disappear/ • http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/impacts/hydrology/wetlands/ • http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands • http://www.personal.ceu.hu/students/03/nature_conservation/wwddetail/Types_classif.html

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