Site Menu Issues Endangered Species Wetlands Alaska Resources
WETLANDS

CYPRESS DOME IMAGE       Cypress dome

Natural purifiers, cypress domes—small swamps with tall cypress trees at the center—act to eliminate wastes carried in water. Fed domestic sewage, cypress domes remove most of the harmful nitrates and phosphates, binding them up in mud and tree roots. Scientists caution that wetlands, vital as pollution traps, could suffer from overloads of contaminants.

    

 
©1996 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

 
return to Wetlands

| Bog | Pothole | Riverine bottomland | Cypress dome |