Wetlands


1) Definition :

A wetland is an area of transition between ground and water, it has an exceptional natural heritage, because of a very strong biodiversity. According to the first article of the convention of Ramsar in 1971, “the wetlands are extensive areas of marsh, peat bogs or of natural or artificial, permanent or temporary water. The water can be stagnant or running, fresh, brackish or salted. It including marine stretches of water whose depth with low tide does not exceed six metres”.

A pondvidéo

A marsh in Camargue

A lagoon

2) Examples of wetlands :

- Stagnant waters: ponds, gravel pits, lakes, lagoons, ponds, dams…

- Running water: rivers, brooks and their sources…

- Floodplains: mangrove, swamp, alluvial or wet forests, peat bogs, marshes, alluvial or wet meadows, alluvial plains and valleys, salt marshes .

3) Ecological interests and protective :

  • The wetlands improve and maintain water quality (while acting like a purifying filter).
  • They constitute a reserve of biodiversity.
  • They also help in the regulation of the microclimates.
  • They protect from floods.

Mangrove

Peat bog

4) Ecosystem :

Wetlands are very rich ecosystems. They shelter fauna and flora very well adapted to their humid surrounding. These wetlands emit methane because of incomplete rotting of the organic matter in this aquatic atmosphere that is deficient in dissolved oxygen.

5) Degradation and protection :

It is estimated that two-thirds of the acreage of France’s wetlands have been destroyed. Human activity which has influenced the destruction and the degradation of wetlands (drainage, embankment, plantations …) could result from private initiative (marshland drainage by farmers, ground depositing for industrial purpose …) or from implementation of public policy (digging of a canal by the State, developing of port equipment…).


However, wetlands must be protected because they are tremendous reserves of biodiversity.

 

Marsh in Florida