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What is a wetland?
Ranging from moist prairie depressions of less than an acre to flooded Florida grasslands stretching for hundreds of square miles, wetlands appear in every region and climate of the U.S. Rivaling tropical rain forests in productivity, wetlands are critical environments for today’s wildlife refuges. The painting below shows a saltwater marsh along the southeastern coastline. Energized by a daily pulse of nutrients from tides, such marshes provide habitat for two-thirds of the commercial finfish and shellfish harvested in the U.S. Other types of wetlands are featured below.

 

CLICK TO EXPORE A SALTWATER MARSH

| Great blue heron | Fiddler crab | Blue crab | Great egret | Spartina grass |

Painting by Robert Hynes
for Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography, NGS 1989


CLICK FOR- WHAT IS A BOG CLICK FOR- WHAT IS A PRAIRIE POTHOLE  CLICK FOR WHAT IS A RIVERINE BOTTOM LAND CLICK FOR WHAT IS A CYPRESS DOME
Paintings by Greg Harlin
for “Our Disappearing Wetlands,”
NGM, October 1992

 
 
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