Freshwater
Definition
Freshwater ecosystems are not clearly defined and depending on definition
they can cover a wide range of habitats.
According to Ramsar,
wetlands cover lakes, rivers and all freshwater habitats, including
peatland areas, such as fens, bogs and mires. A distinction is often
not easy as the classification either refers to the soil type (fen
mire) or the habitat (forest swamp, raised bogs etc.) or even biomes
such as the tundra wetlands. Most wetlands such as peatlands have
been altered drastically and can no longer easily distinguished
by either remote sensing or other means. Additional difficulties
occur by different forms of land use, which alter the original habitat.
Many freshwater marshes and wet grassland areas for example can
derive from raised bogs, fen mires, marshes or other alluvial wetlands.
We can distinguish natural or semi-natural wetlands with hardly
any human impact and wetlands constantly managed by man, but still
of high value for biodiversity (wet grassland, rice fields etc.)
There has been also a process about including coastal wetlands,
such as mangroves
and mudflats, as the Ramsar
Convention agreed to do.
Habitats (Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures):
| Rivers |
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| Estuaries |
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| Inland
deltas |
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| Lakes |
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| Salt
water lakes, salt pans, salines |
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| Freshwater marsh |
Ouse washes (England)
(
396
bytes ) |
|
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| Raised
bogs |
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| Fen |
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| Alpine
meadows |
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| Tundra
wetlands |
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| Shrub
swamps |
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| Forest
swamps |
Igapó forest
(Amazonia, Brazil)
(
564
bytes )
|
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| Freshwater
springs, oasis |
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| Wet
grassland |
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| Ponds,
gravel pits, drainage channels |
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| Reed
beds |
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