How are wetlands classified?
As the title implies, wetlands are classified by their geomorphic setting, dominant water source (e.g. precipitation, groundwater or surface water) and hydrodynamics. The hydrogeomorphic (HGM) includes five major wetland types: riverine, slope depressional, flat and fringe.
What are the two broad categories of wetlands?
Two general categories of wetlands are recognized: coastal or tidal wetlands and inland or non-tidal wetlands.
What types of wetlands are palustrine wetlands?
A palustrine wetland is an inland freshwater area dominated by vegetation. It is non-tidal with ocean derived salinity of less than 0.5%. The word palustrine is derived from ‘palus’ which means marsh in Latin. These wetlands are dominated by trees, shrubs, emergent mosses, lichens, and persistent emergent.
What are the four main categories of wetlands?
Each wetland differs due to variations in soils, landscape, climate, water regime and chemistry, vegetation, and human disturbance. Below are brief descriptions of the major types of wetlands found in the United States organized into four general categories: marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens.
Why do we classify wetlands?
Important Classification Documents The Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States (Cowardin et al. 1979) was developed to support a detailed inventory and periodic monitoring of the Nation’s wet habitats using remote sensing.
How many different types of wetlands are there?
Most scientists consider swamps, marshes, and bogs to be the three major kinds of wetlands. A swamp is a wetland permanently saturated with water and dominated by trees.
How many categories of wetlands are there?
Wetlands can generally be classified into five basic systems, namely: Lacustrine, Riverine, Palustrine, Marine and Estuarine (Frazier, 1996). These comprise complex wetland and deepwater habitats that share the influence of similar hydrologic, geomorphologic, chemical, or biological factors.
What is emergent wetland?
Emergent marsh is a shallow-water wetland along the shores of lakes and streams characterized by emergent narrow- and broad-leaved herbs and grass-like plants as well as floating-leaved herbs.
What are riverine wetlands?
Riverine wetlands depend on the flow of water conveyed by natural or artificial channels, including rivers, streams, ditches, and canals. They can form on floodplains, river terraces, and along channel beds, especially where the flows are seasonal or episodic.
What is lacustrine habitat?
lacustrine ecosystem, also called still-water ecosystem or lentic ecosystem, any pond or lake viewed as an ecosystem. A riverine, or lotic, ecosystem, by contrast, has flowing water—e.g., a river or a stream.