Types of swamps and their characteristics

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

This article will consider one of the most common natural formations, which is a waterlogged area of the earth's surface with a layer of peat and peculiar plant forms characteristic only for such areas, adapted to conditions with a lack of oxygen, with poor water flow and with excess moisture.

Different types of swamps with their brief characteristics will be presented here.

General information

There are 3 main signs of swamps:

• Excessive and stagnant water.
• Presence of specific vegetation characteristic of swamps.
• Peat formation process.

Wetlands are commonly referred to as areas where plant roots cannot reach mineral soil.

Education

Before we know what the main types of swamps are, let's find out how they are formed.

For the formation of such areas, a constant excess of moisture in the soil and on its surface is necessary, as well as a weakwater exchange (including with groundwater). In turn, the lack of oxygen caused by excess moisture makes it difficult for air to enter the soil, and therefore there is insufficient decomposition (or oxidation) of the remains of dying vegetation, and peat is also formed. The latter is a soil substrate with a high water content. It consists entirely of decomposed plants. Peat is distinguished by varying degrees of decomposition. For example, a decomposition rate of 70% means that 70 percent of dead plants have decomposed, and 30 percent have not. This type of substrate has excellent water-holding capacity, so it has a fairly high water content (about 97% of the total volume).

Types of swamps and their characteristics

Under low-lying (eutrophic) swamps are meant, located in depressions, with soil moistened by surface and ground waters, rich in mineral s alts. Horses mainly feed on precipitation from the atmosphere, which is not very rich in mineral s alts. Transitional swamps belong to the intermediate group.

According to the vegetation prevailing in the area, forest, grass, shrub and moss types of swamps are distinguished. According to the microrelief - bumpy, flat, convex. Swamps are the most waterlogged swamp areas.

RF Swamps

Types of swamps in Russia consider a littlebelow. In the meantime - general information.

The swamp area in Russia is approximately 1.4 million square meters. km (approximately 10% of the area of the entire territory of the country). According to rough estimates, they contain about 3000 cubic meters. m of static natural water reserves.

Marsh is a rather complex natural complex. It consists of interconnected biotopes, which are characterized by strong moisture, the presence of a kind of moisture-loving vegetation and the accumulation of various organic residues in the form of silt or peat. Under conditions of different Russian climate, relief, and depending on the underlying rocks, different types of bogs develop, each of which differs in the characteristics of the peat deposit, the conditions of water supply and its runoff, and the characteristics of vegetation.

There are the following types of food in the swamps of Russia: lowland, upland and transitional.

About the nature of food

Under the characteristics of nutritional conditions, we mean the modern surface of the swamp and the presence of that upper layer of the substrate where the roots of plants are located. For each type of swamp, their food sources are presented just above.

Excess moisture is the main symptom of any swamp. It causes the emergence of specific species of animals and vegetation, as well as peculiar special conditions of humification, which in temperate climates usually lead to the incomplete decay of plant residues and the formation of peat.

Geographical distribution of swamps in Russia

Russian swampsdistributed in almost all natural zones, but mainly in drainless, excessively moistened depressions. Most of them are concentrated in the central regions and in the north-west of the West Siberian Plain.

The most wetlands in Russia are the tundra and the taiga zone. The types of swamps here are very diverse. Waterlogging in some areas of the tundra is 50%. About 80% of all peat bogs are concentrated in taiga zones. In the European part of Russia, the Vologda and Leningrad regions and the Republic of Karelia are the most waterlogged (about 40%).

The taiga of Western Siberia is swamped up to 70 percent. A huge number of swamps in the Far East, mostly in the Amur region.

Distribution of swamps by type

Types of swamps in Russia are geographically distributed unevenly. Horses occupy half of the total swampy area, and they predominate in the northern regions. Lowlands make up less than half (about 40%) of the area of all swamps. Very small areas are occupied by transitional swamps (10%).

Low swamps are mostly fed by river or groundwater, and they are found mostly in arid areas. And these are the valleys and deltas of large rivers. Upland bogs are mainly fed by atmospheric precipitation, and they are more often found in the taiga and tundra zones of Eurasia. The main part (84%) of peat areas is located in the Asian part of Russia.

And what type of swamp prevails in the North? The lowland swamps of western Siberia occupy 42%. Most of the peat lands (about 73%) are confined to the area of territories with permafrost.

Vegetation cover

The following plants predominate in the lowland swamps: downy birch, black alder, willow, pine and spruce. Of herbs, sedge is predominantly found here, and of cereals - reeds and reeds. Mosses mainly grow green mosses.

Transitional swamps are characterized by birch and pine (in Siberia - Dahurian and Siberian larches, cedar), as well as willow (slightly less often than in lowland swamps). Of the grasses, the same vegetation is common here as in the lowland swamps, but not in such significant quantities. Most often here you can find alpine sedge, reed grass, bottle sedge and woolly-fruited sedge. There is also vegetation characteristic of raised bogs.

In the upland swamps there are pine (cedar is mixed with it in Siberia) and Dahurian larch. There are no shrubs here at all, but the heather group prevails in these places: cassandra, heather, wild rosemary, blueberries and cranberries. Here, dwarf birch and crowberry (crowberry) grow abundantly. One-headed cotton grass (a herbaceous plant) is also common in such places, forming large hummocks-sods. You can often find cloudberries with sundew. Mosses here are represented only by sphagnum.

Thus, by the nature of peat and vegetation, one can also judge (as noted above) what type of swamps are.

Concluding on environmental issues

In recent years, more and morenegative processes arise in connection with the excessive, destructive exploitation of swamps. First of all, this is pollution, excessive water intake from the soil and mass extraction of peat. Drainage and plowing, violation of the hydrological regime during the construction of roads, gas and oil pipelines and other structures also played an important role in this.

Draining swamps often leads to peat fires, land degradation and loss of biodiversity. All work must be carried out carefully, with the obligatory preservation of most of the wetlands. Be sure to follow the rules of maintaining ecological balance in nature.