What type of wetland is a fen?

What type of wetland is a fen?

Fens are peatlands characterized by a high water table, but with very slow internal drainage by seepage. Similar to bogs, the surface water in fens is also generally nutrient poor and the peat layer is at least 40 cm thick.

What is the difference between a swamp and a fen?

Swamps are forested, marshes are populated by herbaceous plants. Bogs accumulate peat. Fens have neutral or alkaline water chemistry. The types can overlap.

Where are the wetland fens?

Fens can be found around the world, but the vast majority are located at the mid to high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. They are dominated by sedges and mosses, particularly graminoids that may be rarely found elsewhere, such as the sedge species Carex exilis.

Where do fens form?

Fens are often found on hillsides along lakes, streams, and rivers, which occur in glacial outwash on sandy glacial lakebeds. Others are located in broad outwash channels. Researchers distinguish among several different kinds of fens: prairie fens, northern fens, pat- terned fens, and poor fens.

What are the four main types of wetlands?

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. periodic or permanent shallow water, little or no peat deposition, and mineral soils.

What are characteristics of wetlands?

Wetlands must have one or more of the following three attributes: 1) at least periodically, the land supports predominantly hydrophytes; 2) the substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soil; and 3) the substrate is saturated with water or covered by shallow water at some time during the growing season of each year.

Can a swamp be a bog?

Swamps are low wetlands; bogs are generally higher than the surrounding land. Swamps receive water from rivers or streams and have some drainage; bogs receive water from precipitation and have no outflow; water is held by seepage. Swamps have muddy soil; bogs have peat formed by dead and decaying vegetation.

Are fens rare?

Prairie fens are alkaline pH wetlands that occur where groundwater-fed springs come to the soil surface. They are very rare globally, but are most common in glaciated areas of the Midwestern United States.

Why are wetlands important?

Wetlands are a critical part of our natural environment. They protect our shores from wave action, reduce the impacts of floods, absorb pollutants and improve water quality. They provide habitat for animals and plants and many contain a wide diversity of life, supporting plants and animals that are found nowhere else.

Do fish live in fens?

Wetlands such as bogs tend to be too acidic for amphibians but fens, marshes and swamps make excellent amphibian habitat. Various fish species utilize the slow-moving waters of marshy areas for spawning shelter for young fry.

What are the two major types of wetlands?

Types of Wetlands

• Marshes.
• Swamps.
• Bogs.
• Fens.

What are benefits of wetlands?

Wetlands provide many societal benefits: food and habitat for fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species; water quality improvement; flood storage; shoreline erosion control; economically beneficial natural products for human use; and opportunities for recreation, education, and research (Figure 28) …

What animals are in fen?

Fens are often found near bogs and over time most fens become bogs. Insects like mosquitoes and horseflies are common in fens as are amphibians, insect-eating birds, and insect-eating mammals like shrews, voles, and muskrats .

What are the different types of wetland protection?

According to the Wetlands Subcommittee of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, several different types of wetland protection exist [ 2 ]: Restoration . Restoration refers to the manipulation of the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a site with the goal of returning natural/historic functions to former or degraded wetland.

What is a wetland article?

Article 1.1: “…wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.”