Description

• Hydraulic soil• Many tall reeds• Birds such as herons• Decomposers

Most Important A Biotic Factor

• Every living thing needs water. • When the water is drained or becomes scarce it becomes a limiting factor.

• Draining for irrigation is a large problem.

Types of Wetlands

Mangrove Swamps are salt water wetlands. There are few trees that can live off of salt water. The trees that live in the mangrove swamps have adapted to the salt water.

Mangrove Swamps

Plants

• Tall plants- reeds and bulrushes• Floating plants- lilies, lotus, pondweeds

• Large trees- silver maple and bald cypress

pondweeds

Birds

• Woodpeckers• Herons• Egrets• Storks

» Stork

Other Animals

                                                       

                   

Alligator

Rabbit

Deer

Different levels on the food chain

• Producers- Algae• Primary Consumers-Zooplankton• Secondary Consumers-Plankton

Eating Fish• Territory Level- Herons

Producers Herbivores Carnivore Omnivores Decomposers

Grasses Grasshoppers Shrew Hawks Earth Worm

Food Chain

Decomposers

Hawk HeronBeavers

Mice Shrew Plankton Eating Fish Largemouth bass Mosquito Eating Fish

Grasshopper Mussel Zooplankton Bluegill Fish Mosquito Larva

Grasses Algae

Food Web

Species Must Adapt

Many wetlands are covered with water for most of the year.

Plants that live in the wetlands need to adapt to its very wet soil.

Most plants would die in soil that is as wet as the soil in the wetlands.

The worms that live in the soil need to adapt to it also.

Cooperation and Competition

• The animals eat the plants while the plants need the animals for fertile soil.

• Birds compete over breeding areas.

Where Are They Located?

• On the coast line• On almost every continent• Near rivers

Climatogram for the Everglades

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What We Use The Wetlands For

Drinking Water

Keep areas from flooding

Protect the Shore from Erosion

Fire Protection

Wetlands are Being Destroyed

• 22 states have lost more than 50% of the wetlands.

• Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, California, Indiana, and Illinois have lost over 80% of the wetlands

• California has lost 91% of the wetlands.

How Wetlands are Destroyed

• Draining wetlands• Adding invasive organisms• Dumping chemicals• Dam up the wetlands• Logging and forestry• Climate change

Future Outlook For The Wetlands

Wetlands are in danger, they are rapidly disappearing.

The oceans are rinsing and destroying the coastal wetlands.

Unless people help to save the wetlands they will disappear.

Quiz

1. Name the three species that live in the wetlands.

2. How are we destroying the wetlands?

3. What do we gain from the wetlands?