wetlands
DESCRIPTION
Wetlands. Clark Matt Aaron. What are Wetlands ?. wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface. Wetlands vary by:. Soil type topography - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
ClarkMattAaron
Wetlands
wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor
determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and
animal communities living in the soil and on its surface
What are Wetlands?
Soil typetopographyclimatehydrologywater chemistryvegetationincluding human disturbance found from the tundra to the tropics and on every
continent except Antarctica
Wetlands vary by:
Tundra wetlands
Tropical wetlands
term wetlands means "those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas."
Clean Water Act
immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals can be part of a wetland ecosystem
animals use wetlands for part of or all of their life-cycle
wetlands help to moderate global climate conditions.
Why protect wetlands
ducks, geese, woodpeckers, hawks, wading birds, and many song-birds, feed, nest, and raise their young in wetlands
some species of migratory birds are completely dependent on certain wetlands and would become extinct if those wetlands were destroyed
Birds and wetlands
function as natural sponges that trap and slowly release surface water, rain, snowmelt, groundwater and flood waters
trees, root mats, and other wetland vegetation slow the speed of flood waters and distribute them more slowly over the floodplain
wetlands protect shorelines and stream banks against erosion
Flood Protection
filtering capabilitieswetlands retain excess nutrients and some
pollutantsreduce sediment that clogs waterwaysreplenish groundwater
Water Quality
protects wetlands and the public interests they serve, including:
flood controlprevention of pollution and storm damageprotection of public and private water
suppliesgroundwater supplyFisheriesland containing shellfishwildlife habitat
Mass Wetlands Protection Act
Cannot alter or destroy wetlands unless:They are on existing structure that are used
for public servicesThe Wetlands that are destroyed are replaced
in another locationProper paperwork must be submitted and
reviewed in order to do such projects
Mass Wetlands Protection Act
Three Characteristics for Identifying Wetlands1. Hydrology – amount of soil saturation
2. Hydrophytes – is there wetland vegetation
3. Hydric Soils – soil wet enough to periodically produce anaerobic conditions (no air circulates the soil because of amount of water)
Classification of Hydrophytes
Indicator Category Probability of WetlandObligate wetland (OBL) > 99%Facultative wetland (FACW) 67-99%Facultative (FAC) 34-66%Facultative Upland (FACU) 1-33%Upland Plants (UPL) < 1%
Examples of Indicators Obligate wetland (OBL)
Cattail
Facultative wetland (FACW)
Poison Ivy
Facultative (FAC) Witch Hazel
Facultative UplandMountain Laurel
Upland PlantsGround Juniper
Used ground-truthing to delineate wetland behind WSU
Walked around the perimeter of the wetlandUsed a GPS that took lat/long every 2 secondsMarked waypoints at spots of interestDownloaded data into ArcGISOver-layed MassDEP wetlands layer and NWI
wetlands layerConverted all 3 layers to KML filesProjected into Google Earth
What We Did
Mass DEP Wetlands layer (Westfield)
National Wetlands Inventory
Both layers combined with ours