What Is a Wetland?

Answer:

Wetlands are habitats that fall somewhere on the environmental spectrum between land and water. Since wetlands lie at the interface of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, they possess a unique mixture of species, conditions, and interactions. The world's largest wetland is the Pantanal which straddles Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay in South America.

Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. Plant life found in wetlands includes mangrove, water lilies, cattails, sedges, tamarack, black spruce, cypress, gum, and many others. Animal life includes many different amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, and mammals.

The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish.

Some common wetlands include: salt marshes, coastal fresh marshes, swamps, bogs, vernal pools, forested floodplain wetlands, pocosins, prairie potholes.