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Marsh
 
 
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In geography
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland
Wetland

File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
 which is subject to frequent or continuous flood . Typically the water is shallow and features grass
Poaceae

Poaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the Magnoliophyta. Plants of this family are usually called grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo ....
es, rush
Juncaceae

The Juncaceae, the rush family, is a rather small monocotyledon flowering plant family. There are 8 genus and about 400 species. Many of these slow-growing plants superficially resemble Poaceae, though are herbs or Shrub, growing on infertile soils....
es, reeds
Phragmites

Phragmites australis, the common reed, is a large perennial plant Poaceae found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world....
, typha
Typha

Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the monogeneric family, Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan distribution, being found in a variety of wetland habitats....
s, sedge
Cyperales

Cyperales is a botanical name for an order of flowering plants. As used in the Engler system and in the Wettstein system it consisted of only the single family....
s, and other herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s. Woody plants will be low-growing shrubs.






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Florida Freshwater Marshes Usgov Image
In geography
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland
Wetland

File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
 which is subject to frequent or continuous flood . Typically the water is shallow and features grass
Poaceae

Poaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the Magnoliophyta. Plants of this family are usually called grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo ....
es, rush
Juncaceae

The Juncaceae, the rush family, is a rather small monocotyledon flowering plant family. There are 8 genus and about 400 species. Many of these slow-growing plants superficially resemble Poaceae, though are herbs or Shrub, growing on infertile soils....
es, reeds
Phragmites

Phragmites australis, the common reed, is a large perennial plant Poaceae found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world....
, typha
Typha

Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the monogeneric family, Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan distribution, being found in a variety of wetland habitats....
s, sedge
Cyperales

Cyperales is a botanical name for an order of flowering plants. As used in the Engler system and in the Wettstein system it consisted of only the single family....
s, and other herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s. Woody plants will be low-growing shrubs. A marsh is different from a swamp
Swamp

A swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land, by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammock , or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation....
, which has a greater proportion of open water surface and may be deeper than a marsh. In North America, the term "swamp" is used for wetland dominated by trees rather than grasses and low herb
Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s.

The water of a marsh can be fresh
Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve....
 (freshwater marsh), brackish (brackish marsh
Brackish marsh

Brackish marshes develop by salt marshes where a significant freshwater influx dilute the seawater to brackish levels of salinity. This commonly happens upstream salt marshes by estuaries of coastal rivers or near the mouths of coastal rivers with heavy freshwater discharges in the conditions of low tidal ranges....
), or saline
Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. Salinity in Australian English and North American English may also refer to the salt in soil ....
 (salt marsh).

Coastal marshes may be associated with estuaries
Estuary

An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
, and are also along waterways between coast
Coast

The coast is defined as that part of the land adjoining or near the ocean or its saltwater arms. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides....
al barrier islands and the inner coast. The estuarine marsh, or tidal marsh
Tidal marsh

A tidal marsh is a type of marsh that is found along coasts and Estuary of which the flooding characteristics are determined by the tide of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean ....
, is often based on soils consisting of sandy bottoms or bay mud
Bay mud

Bay mud consists of thick deposits of soft, unconsolidated silty clay, which is saturated with water; these soil layers are situated at the bottom of certain estuary, which are normally in temperate regions that have experienced cyclical glacial cycles....
s. An example is the Tantramar Marsh of eastern Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
.

Marshes are critically important wildlife habitat
Habitat (ecology)

A habitat is an ecological or Natural_environment area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population....
, often serving as breeding grounds for a wide variety of animal
Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
 life, particularly including ducks and geese.

Constructed wetland
Constructed wetland

A constructed wetland or wetpark is an artificial marsh or swamp, created for anthropogenic discharge such as wastewater, stormwater runoff or sewage treatment, and as habitat for wildlife, or for land reclamation after mining or other disturbance....
s featuring surface-flow design are usually in the form of a marsh.

Decomposition of plant materials below water often produces marsh gas, which may begin to burn by self-ignition
Self-ignition

Self-ignition can refer either to*Spontaneous combustion or*the ability of Diesel fuel to ignite under high compression and the use of that phenomenon in Diesel engines...
 making mysterious lights known locally as Will o' the wisp
Will o' the wisp

The will-o'-the-wisp, sometimes will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus Latin, from ignis + fatuus , plural ignes fatui) refers to the ghostly lights sometimes seen at night or twilight ? often over bogs....
s, Jack-o'-lantern
Jack-o'-lantern

A jack-o'-lantern is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday Halloween, and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o'-lantern....
s, or sprite
Sprite

Sprite may refer to:* Sprite , elves, fairies and pixies* Sprite , a two-dimensional pre-rendered figure* Sprite , the brand name of a lemon-lime beverage produced by The Coca-Cola Company...
s.

See also

  • Aquatic plant
    Aquatic plant

    Aquatic plants — also called hydrophytic plants or hydrophytes — are plants that have adapted to living in or on aquatic environments....
  • Bayou
    Bayou

    A bayou is a small, slow-moving stream or creek, or a lake or pool that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream. Bayous are usually located in relatively flat, low-lying areas, for example, in the Mississippi River River delta region of the southern United States....
  • Biodiversity Action Plan
    Biodiversity Action Plan

    This article is about a conservation biology topic. For other uses of BAP, see BAP .A 'Biodiversity Action Plan' is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems....
  • Bog
    Bog

    A bog or mire is a wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—usually mosses, but also lichens in Arctic climates....
  • Fen
    Fen

    A fen is a type of wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater. Fens are characterized by their water chemistry, which is pH or alkaline. Fens are different from bogs, which are acidic, fed primarily by rainwater and often dominated by Sphagnum mosses....


Reference line notes


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