wetland

wetland Any land which is intermittently or periodically waterlogged. This includes salt marshes, tidal estuaries, marshes, and bogs. Wetlands are rapidly disappearing habitats; the Everglades National Park, Florida, is a complex of coastal mangroves, tropical saw‐grass marshes, and forest on the slightly raised areas, but flood‐control measures to the north, and the ever‐increasing number of visitors cause intense pressure on the ecosystem. Other wetlands are increasingly being reclaimed for agriculture, industry, or housing.

In the United States a constructed wetland can involve engineering of hydrology and soils, and is intentionally created from non‐wetland sites for the sole purpose of wastewater or storm water treatment, but literature from elsewhere may not distinguish between these terms. The concept of a designer wetland emphasizes the life history strategy of species as the major factor in developing vegetation on a restoration site. It favours engineering and replanting strategies directed at producing a wetland type, with no fixed endpoint. Wetland mitigation is the replacing of wetland areas destroyed or impacted by proposed land disturbances with artificially created wetland areas.