A swamp is a wetland A wetland is an area of land which soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. The world's largest wetland is the featuring flooding A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammocks Hammocks are dense stands of hardwood trees that grow on natural rises of only a few inches higher than surrounding marshland that is otherwise too wet to support them. Hammocks are distinctive in that they are formed gradually over thousands of years rising in a wet area through the deposits of their own decomposing organic material. As a result, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments. Because living on or under water surface requires numerous special adaptations, aquatic plants can only grow in water or permanently saturated soil. Aquatic vascular plants can be ferns or angiosperms, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.[2] The two main types of swamp are "true" or forest swamps and "transitional" or shrub swamps Shrub swamps, also called scrub swamps or buttonbush swamps, are a type of freshwater wetland ecosystem occurring in areas too wet to become hardwood swamps , but too dry or too shallow to become marshes. They are often considered transitional (“mid-successional”) between wet meadows or fens and conifer or hardwood swamps. The water of a swamp may be fresh water Freshwater or fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Freshwater is characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term specifically excludes seawater and, brackish water Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salten" or "salty". Certain human activities can or seawater Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%. This means that every kilogram, or every litre, of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts (mostly, but not entirely, the ions of sodium chloride: Na+, Cl−). The average density of seawater at the ocean surface is 1.025.
In North America, swamps are usually regarded as including a large amount of woody vegetation Vegetation is the plant life or the plant ground cover of a region, not the particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers exclusively to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and, but elsewhere this may not necessarily apply, such as in African swamps dominated by papyrus Cyperus papyrus is a monocot belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a herbaceous perennial native to Africa, and forms tall stands of reed-like swamp vegetation in shallow water. By contrast, a marsh In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants in North America is a wetland without woody vegetation, or elsewhere, a wetland without woody vegetation which is shallower and has less open water surface than a swamp. A mire (or quagmire) is a low-lying wetland of deep, soft soil or mud that sinks underfoot with large algae covering the water's surface.
A common feature of swamps is water stagnation Malaria and dengue are among the main dangers of stagnant water, which can become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that transmit these diseases.
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Geology
Swamps are characterized by very slow-moving waters. They are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. In some cases, rivers become swamps for a distance. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those of planets, moons, and asteroids. It is also the description of such surface shapes and features (especially their depiction in maps) relief.
Ecology
Cypress Taxodium distichum is a species of conifer native to the southeastern United States swamp at Highlands Hammock State Park, United States of America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language Swampy parts of the Katzensee at Regensdorf, Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to Prismatic reflections on the mud of a swamp located in the south west of France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,Swamps are characterised by rich biodiversity and specialized organisms such as frogs.[3] For instance, southeastern U.S. swamps, such as those mentioned below, feature trees such as the Bald cypress Taxodium distichum is a species of conifer native to the southeastern United States and Water Tupelo, which are adapted to growing in standing water, and animals Animals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently. All animals are also such as the American alligator The American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, is one of the two living species of Alligator, a genus within the family Alligatoridae. The American Alligator is native only to the Southeastern United States, where it inhabits wetlands that frequently overlap with human-populated areas. It is larger than the other extant alligator species, the. A common species In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are often used, such as based on similarity of DNA or name in biological nomenclature The formal system of naming species is called binomial nomenclature , binominal nomenclature (since 1953, the technically correct form in zoology), or binary nomenclature is the Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many palustris, meaning "of the swamp". Examples of this are Quercus palustris (pin oak The Pin oak or Swamp Spanish oak is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae) and Thelypteris palustris (marsh fern A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns do not have either seeds or flowers (they reproduce via spores)).
Draining
Swamps were historically often drained to provide additional land for agriculture Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as, and to reduce the threat of diseases born by swamp insects and similar animals. Swamps were generally seen as useless and even dangerous. This practice of swamp draining is nowadays seen as a destruction of a very valuable ecological habitat type of which large tracts have already disappeared in many countries.
Famous examples
Russian Federation
The Vasyugan Swamp is a large swamp in the western Siberia Siberia , is a vast region, constituting almost all of Northern Asia and currently the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, as it was in the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire since the 16th century area of the Russian Federation. This is one of the biggest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to.
Iraq
The Tigris-Euphrates river system The Tigris-Euphrates river system is part of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh ecoregion of West Asia, and is characterized by two large rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers have several small tributaries which feed into the system from shallow freshwater lakes, swamps, and marshes, all surrounded by desert. The hydrology of these is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyat Al-Irāq, Kurdish: كۆماری عێراق, Komara Îraqê, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܥܸܪܵܩ) is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the, inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs The Marsh Arabs , also known as the Maʻdān (Arabic: معدان), are inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates marshlands in the south and east of Iraq and along the Iranian border.
United States
Atchafalaya Swamp The Atchafalaya Basin, or Atchafalaya Swamp, is the largest swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge. The Atchafalaya is unique among basins because it has a growing delta system with nearly stable wetlands is the largest swamp in the United States. Other famous swamps in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language are the Everglades The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles wide and, Okefenokee Swamp The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000 acre , peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia–Florida border in the United States. A majority of the swamp is in Georgia and protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee Wilderness. The Okefenokee Swamp is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. The, Barley Barber Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp. The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama and by Florida in the south; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the vast Appalachian Mountains system. The central piedmont and extends slightly into northeastern Florida With an area of 65,758 square miles , it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the most coastline in the Contiguous United States encompassing approximately 1,200 miles. The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Land from displaced Native American tribes and slave labor each played significant roles in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was and extreme northeastern North Carolina Spanish colonial forces were the first Europeans to make a permanent settlement in the area, when the Juan Pardo-led Expedition built Fort San Juan in 1567. This was sited at Joara, a Mississippian culture regional chiefdom near present-day Morganton in the western interior. This was 20 years before the English established their first colony at. Both are National Wildlife Refuges National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated. Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake Reelfoot Lake is a shallow natural lake located in the northwest portion of Tennessee and extending into Fulton County, Kentucky, United States of America. Much of it is really more of a swamp, with bayou-like ditches connecting more open bodies of water called basins, the largest of which is called Blue Basin. Reelfoot Lake is noted for its bald of extreme western Tennessee The State of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. In the and Kentucky Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that native bluegrass is present in many of the pastures throughout the state, based on the fertile soil. It made possible the breeding of high-quality livestock, especially thoroughbred racing horses. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources,, was created by the New Madrid earthquake The New Madrid Seismic Zone, sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the Southern and Midwestern United States stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri of 1812. Caddo Lake Caddo Lake is a 25,400 acres (103 km2) lake and wetland located on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Southeastern culture of Native Americans called Caddoans or Caddo, who lived in the area until their expulsion, the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps that are centered at large lakes. Swamps are often called bayous A bayou is a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), or to a marshy lake or wetland. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, particularly the Mississippi River region, with the state of in the southeastern United States The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. The Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region of the United States, and organizations that need to subdivide the US are free to define a "Southeast" region to fit their needs. However, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas are, especially in the Gulf Coast The Gulf of Mexico is the eleventh largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and region.
Land value and productivity
Swamps and other wetlands A wetland is an area of land which soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. The world's largest wetland is the have traditionally held a very low property value Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the practice of developing an opinion of the value of real property, usually its Market Value. The need for appraisals arises from the heterogeneous nature of property as an investment class: no two properties are identical, and all properties differ from each other in their location - compared to fields, prairies, or woodlands. They have a reputation as being unproductive land that can't be easily utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers for example typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops.
Societies now generally understand that swamps are critically important in the processes of providing fresh water and oxygen to all life, and are often breeding grounds for a wide variety of life. Government environmental agencies (such as the Department of Natural Resources in the United States) are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps and other wetlands.
However, the generally messy nature of swamps, with their diffuse boundaries and lack of enclosure, prevents humans from being able to collect and capitalize on their precious natural resources. Generally swamps are assessed as having low land value even while they are being protected from damage.
Heraldry
A swamp appears in the coat of arms of Gesturi, Italy.
List of major swamps
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Africa
Asia
- Asmat Swamp, Indonesia
- Vasyugan Swamp, Russia
- Candaba Swamp in Apalit, Batangas, Candaba in Pampanga and Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines
- Mangrove Swamp in Karachi, Pakistan
North America
- Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, United States
- Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, United States
- Barley Barber Swamp, Florida, United States
- Great Black Swamp, Indiana/Ohio, United States
- Great Cypress Swamp, Maryland, United States, also known as Great Pocomoke Swamp
- Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina/Virginia, United States
- Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, United States
- Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve, Florida, United States
- Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana, United States
- Limberlost, Indiana, United States
- Louisiana swamplands, Louisiana, United States
- Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia/Florida, United States
- Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee/Kentucky, United States
- Everglades, Florida, United States
- Shu Swamp, New York, United States
- Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Puxico, Missouri, United States
South America
See also
- Aquatic plant
- Bog
- Fen
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Marsh
- Marsh gas
- Muck
- Peat
- Salt marsh
- Wetland
- Will o' the wisp
References
- ^ http://anfepic.co.nr/
- ^ Swamp (from glossary web page of the United States Geological Survey)
- ^ Frogs & toads
Categories: Pedology | Swamps | Fluvial landforms
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DNAinfo
The 9/11 Memorial Trees, 500 Swamp White Oaks and Sweetgums, are being carefully tended in individual planter boxes in a Millston Township ...
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Molly Reid, The Times-Picayune
hu, 15 Jul 2010 09:35:07 GM
What started as a way to help one man's granddaughter battle cystic fibrosis has turned, somewhat surprisingly, into one of the biggest showcases of . swamp. pop music in south Louisiana. The . Swamp. Pop Music Festival, now in its 13th year, ...
Q. What I mean is that when it rains even alittle their are mud pits all over my yard and some places even turn into a mini swamp. The water isn't be soaked up by the ground. I've tried putting more grass seeds down thinking that more grass will hold the soil better but nothing. Can anyone help me out.
Asked by Infamousfrog - Mon Feb 23 14:34:07 2009 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments
A. French drains would help your yard a lot. Just trenches (a few feet deep) filled with rock and covered over - will absorb quite a lot of water.
Answered by Kel - Mon Feb 23 15:06:49 2009
