125 articles
Minerotrophic
Minerotrophic describes peatlands, especially fens, whose water and nutrients come partly from mineral soil or bedrock, unlike ombrotrophic bogs, which are fed only by precipitation.
Mitigation banking
Mitigation banking, also called wetland mitigation banking, restores or creates wetlands in advance so credits can be sold to offset permitted impacts under the Clean Water Act.
Mudskipper
Mudskippers are amphibious gobies (Oxudercidae, Oxudercinae), about 34-45 species of Indo-West Pacific and West African mudflat fish that breathe air through skin, walk on pectoral fins, and brood eggs in air-filled burrows.
Muraenidae
Muraenidae, the moray eels, is a family of Anguilliformes eels with about 200-227 species in 15-16 genera, two subfamilies (Muraeninae, Uropterygiinae), tropical reef predators with raptorial pharyngeal jaws.
Muskeg
Muskeg, or Maskīk, is a North American term for peatland, waterlogged terrain of sphagnum moss and stunted black spruce that covers every Canadian province and stores vast carbon.
National wetland policy in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and the Middle East
National wetland policy in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, and the Middle East covers the country-level laws, programs, and institutions governing wetlands outside regions with the most developed statutes.
National wetland policy in Asia
National wetland policy in Asia is the set of laws and rules by which Asian countries protect and manage their wetlands, with China's first comprehensive statute effective June 2022.
National wetland policy: comparative structures and inventory programs
A national wetland policy is the set of laws, permits, and inventory programs by which a country protects, regulates, and maps its wetlands, using models that differ widely.
National Wetlands Inventory
National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), a 1974 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program, maps U.S. wetlands and deepwater habitats using the Cowardin classification, publishes the Wetlands Mapper and Status and Trends reports, and is not a jurisdictional wetland determination.
No net loss wetlands policy
No net loss of wetlands is a US policy goal requiring permitted wetland losses to be offset by restoration or creation, adopted by President George H. W. Bush in 1988.
North American beaver
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is the continent's largest rodent, a keystone ecosystem engineer that builds dams and lodges, was nearly exterminated by the fur trade, and is invasive in parts of Eurasia.
North American Waterfowl Management Plan
The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) is a 1986 Canada–U.S. treaty-style agreement, joined by Mexico in 1994, restoring waterfowl to 1970s levels via wetland habitat conservation delivered through 22 habitat and 3 species joint ventures.
Nyssa sylvatica
Nyssa sylvatica (blackgum, black tupelo, sour gum) is a deciduous Nyssaceae tree native from southern Ontario and the eastern United States to Mexico, 5–30 m tall, dioecious, IUCN Least Concern, with red fall foliage, wildlife fruit, tupelo honey, and tough wood.
Orinoco Delta & Coastal Drainages
Orinoco Delta & Coastal Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 309, covers the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela plus coastal rivers of northwestern Guyana; a 22,000 km2 tidal wetland with four endemic fishes, the Warao people, and the Delta del Orinoco Biosphere Reserve.
Paludiculture
Paludiculture is productive farming or forestry on wet or rewetted peatlands that keeps water tables high to preserve peat. Also called wet agriculture; crops include reed, cattail, Sphagnum, sago; cuts GHG emissions versus drained peatland farming.
Pantanal
The Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland, about 42 million acres across Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, defined by an annual flood pulse, exceptional wildlife including jaguars and 10 million caimans, extensive cattle ranching, and growing fire and drought threats.
Parnassia palustris
Parnassia palustris, marsh grass-of-Parnassus or bog star (梅花草), a circumpolar perennial herb of Celastraceae with white five-petaled flowers and nectar-mimicking staminodes, pollinated deceptively by flies, IUCN least concern.
Peat swamp forest
Peat swamp forest: tropical forest on waterlogged peat, best developed in Southeast Asia (Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia). Stores ~105 GtC in tropical peat; drained and burned for oil palm and acacia plantations, emitting ~692 Tg CO2e yearly; restored by canal blocking.
Peatland
Peatland: waterlogged wetland ecosystem (bogs, fens, mires, swamps) with surface peat from partly decomposed plants; covers ~3% of land, stores ~20% of soil carbon (238–612 Gt C), and emits ~5% of GHGs when drained.
Peatland drainage impact
Peatland drainage impact covers the environmental consequences of draining peatlands: drained peat becomes a carbon source, causing emissions, subsidence of 1 to 8 meters, and water degradation.
Peatland restoration
Peatland restoration is the practice of returning drained or degraded peatlands to health, mainly by rewetting them so they again store carbon, support peat-forming vegetation, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests
Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests are waterlogged, peat-forming coastal forests of the Malay Peninsula, part of Southeast Asia's tropical peat swamp ecoregion, now reduced by drainage, fire, and oil palm conversion to fragmented reserves such as North Selangor and Southeast Pahang.
Phragmites
Phragmites, the common reed genus, includes four clonal wetland grasses; the Eurasian subspecies Phragmites australis australis is a major North American wetland invader, distinguished from native americanus by faster spread, higher biomass, and stronger diversity reduction.
Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat): 1971 treaty for wetland conservation and wise use, in force 1975, UNESCO depositary, Ramsar List sites, nine criteria, COP15 2025 Victoria Falls.
Reed (plant)
Reed (Phragmites australis), common reed, is a cosmopolitan rhizomatous wetland grass with culms 1–4(–6) m. Native lineages and an invasive European haplotype (M) coexist in North America; it tolerates moderate salinity via leaf osmotic adjustment.
Reed bed
Reed bed: wetland dominated by common reed (Phragmites australis), over 60% cover. Covers natural fen habitat, rare in Britain, and engineered reed bed systems for wastewater and sludge treatment since 1985.
Salt marsh
A salt marsh is a coastal wetland flooded and drained by tidal salt water, occurring worldwide and serving as nursery habitat for over 75% of fisheries species.
Samphire
Samphire, also called Saint Peter's herb, names two unrelated salty coastal plants eaten as vegetables: the marsh glassworts Salicornia and Sarcocornia, and rock samphire of sea cliffs.
Sandhill crane
Sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis, Grus canadensis): abundant North American crane with six subspecies, three migratory and three non-migratory; Mid-Continent Population about 1.06 million, staging on the Platte River.
Se7en Wetlands
Se7en Wetlands is a 1,640-acre constructed treatment wetland in Lakeland, Florida, providing tertiary wastewater treatment since 1987 on former phosphate mine land, opened as a public park in 2018 with trails, wildlife, and an education center project.