414 articles
A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia
A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) is the Australian national inventory of nationally important wetlands, first published 1993 with editions in 1996 and 2001; inclusion requires meeting at least one of six ANZECC 1994 criteria, and the online Directory now holds over 900 sites.
Acqui Terme
Acqui Terme, Piedmont town on Roman Aquae Statiellae, famed for the 75°C Bollente sulphur-bromine-iodine spring, Roman baths, Nuove Terme and Regina spas, closed amid 2026 concession dispute.
Aerenchyma
Aerenchyma is plant tissue with enlarged, interconnected gas spaces that transport oxygen to flooded roots. Forms lysigenously, schizogenously, or expansigenously; key to wetland adaptation, crop flooding tolerance, and methane venting.
Akyatan Lagoon
Akyatan Lagoon (Akyatan Lagünü), Turkey's largest lagoon, is a choked, temporarily hypersaline coastal lagoon in Karataş, Adana, on the Mediterranean. Ramsar site no. 943 since 1998 (14,700 ha), it hosts 250+ bird species, wintering flamingos, and major green sea turtle nesting beaches.
Alternanthera philoxeroides
Alternanthera philoxeroides, alligator weed or alligatorweed (pig weed), an amphibious Amaranthaceae herb from southern South America; invasive floating-mat aquatic weed in the USA (since 1897), China (since 1892), and Australia, spread by vegetative fragments.
Althaea officinalis
Althaea officinalis, marsh mallow, a Malvaceae perennial of Europe to Siberia and NW Africa whose dried root (Althaeae radix) is an EU-approved traditional demulcent for cough and mild gut discomfort.
Angel Falls
Angel Falls (Salto Ángel, Kerepakupai Merú), Venezuela's 979 m waterfall on Auyán-tepui in Canaima National Park, is the world's tallest, with an 807 m single drop, named for aviator Jimmie Angel.
Anzali Lagoon (تالاب انزلی)
Anzali Lagoon (Mordāb-e Anzalī, تالاب انزلی) is a Caspian coastal freshwater lagoon in Gilan, Iran, a 1975 Ramsar site on the Montreux Record, shrinking from ~258 km2 (1930) toward projected seasonal desiccation by 2058.
Aponus
Aponus (Aponi fons) was the Venetic god of the Euganean hot springs near Padua, later identified with Apollo; his name survives in Abano Terme, and his sacred spring, the fons Aponi, drew healing pilgrims and Tiberius's golden dice.
Aquae Albulae (Italy)
Aquae Albulae (Acque Albule): sulphurous hypothermal springs near Tivoli, Rome, used since Roman times by Augustus and Hadrian, now the Terme di Roma spa with SSN-accredited cures.
Aquae Sinuessanae
Aquae Sinuessanae: sulphurous Roman thermal springs and baths of the colony of Sinuessa near Mondragone, Campania; cited by Livy, Strabo, and Pliny, visited by Narcissus, and still in therapeutic use today.
Aquatic plant
Aquatic plants (hydrophytes, macrophytes) are plants adapted to water, in emergent, floating-leaved, free-floating, and submerged forms. Derived from terrestrial ancestors, they use bicarbonate-based carbon uptake, provide habitat and water-quality benefits, and are managed as invasive nuisances.
Arafura Swamp
The Arafura Swamp, known to its Yolngu Traditional Owners as Gurruwiling, is a large freshwater wetland in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, holding Australia's largest paperbark swamp and over 300,000 waterbirds.
Ashtamudi Wetland
Ashtamudi Wetland (Ashtamudi Lake), a 61.4 km² brackish Ramsar estuary (site 1204, designated 2002) in Kollam, Kerala, India; second-largest Kerala wetland, home of India's first MSC-certified clam fishery, facing pollution, salinity rise, and shrinking area.
Athirappilly Falls (അതിരപ്പിള്ളി വെള്ളച്ചാട്ടം)
Athirappilly Falls (അതിരപ്പിള്ളി വെള്ളച്ചാട്ടം), the Niagara of India, is Kerala's largest waterfall: an 80-foot, 100-meter-wide cascade on the Chalakudy River in Thrissur district, famed for hornbills and a contested 163 MW dam project.
Australasian wetland flora
Australasian wetland flora is the collective vegetation of Australia's and New Zealand's swamps, marshes, bogs, billabongs, and floodplains, from water lilies to floodplain trees such as river red gum.
Australian state and territory wetland policy
Australian state and territory wetland policy is the set of state and territory laws and strategies protecting Australia's wetlands, since land and water management rests with the jurisdictions.
Badab-e Surt (باداب سورت)
Badab-e Surt (باداب سورت), also Badab Soort, is a stepped travertine terrace spring site at 1,841 m in Mazandaran, Iran, 95 km southeast of Sari, formed by two mineral springs, one salty and one iron-rich orange, registered as a national natural monument in 2008.
Bagnères-de-Luchon
Bagnères-de-Luchon (Luchon), Pyrenean spa town in Haute-Garonne, France, at 627 m near Spain; Roman-era thermal springs, revived by d'Étigny from 1759, Thermes Chambert 1857, Superbagnères ski resort, reopened 2025 rail line.
Bagni di Lucca
Bagni di Lucca is a town and spa center in Tuscany, Italy, known for thermal springs that made it one of Europe's most elegant 19th-century spas.
Bahiret el Bibane
Bahiret el Bibane (Bahiret el Biban), a hypersaline coastal lagoon of about 230 km2 in southeastern Tunisia near the Libyan border, a Ramsar site since 2007 famed for its 3.5 km traditional bordigue fish barrier and nursery fisheries.
Baie d'Ad-Dakhla
Baie d'Ad-Dakhla (Dakhla Bay) is a 37 km Ramsar wetland (site 1470, 2005) on Morocco's Atlantic Sahara, the country's second most important waterbird wintering site, with Zostera noltii beds and over 120 mollusc species.
Ballynahone Bog
Ballynahone Bog is a lowland raised bog near Maghera in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, protected as a Special Area of Conservation, Ramsar site, and National Nature Reserve.
Banff Upper Hot Springs
Banff Upper Hot Springs is a Parks Canada-operated mineral pool on Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park, Alberta, held at 37–40 °C. Canada's highest outdoor pool, first developed in 1886, with its 1932 heritage bathhouse restored in 1996.
Bangweulu
Bangweulu, "where the water meets the sky," is a Zambian wetland system of Lake Bangweulu, swamps, and floodplains in the upper Congo basin, drained by the Luapula River, home to the endemic black lechwe and shoebill, a Ramsar site co-managed since 2008.
Bangweulu - Mweru
Bangweulu - Mweru is a freshwater ecoregion covering the lakes and swamps of the Bangweulu and Mweru systems in southeastern DRC and northeastern Zambia, with rich endemic fauna.
Bangweulu Swamps
The Bangweulu Swamps, meaning "where the water meets the sky," are permanent swamps and seasonally flooded grasslands in northeastern Zambia, home to the endangered black lechwe.
Bayou
Bayou: a slow-moving creek or still water channel of the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana French and Choctaw bayuk (small stream), first in English 1766; distinct from a swamp.
Beeliar Wetlands
Beeliar Wetlands: two chains of lakes and swamps in Perth's southern suburbs, mostly within Beeliar Regional Park; Thomsons Lake is Ramsar-listed, and the 2021 MRS Act rezoned the wetlands for permanent protection.
Berkeley Springs (hot spring)
Berkeley Springs (Warm Springs, Bath) is a group of warm mineral springs, about 74°F, in Berkeley Springs State Park, Morgan County, West Virginia, famed since colonial times, visited by George Washington, with free public water and 1815 Roman Bath House.