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West Texas Gulf
West Texas Gulf (FEOW ecoregion 139) is a freshwater ecoregion of southern Texas defined by the San Antonio and Nueces river watersheds, with karst Edwards Plateau headwaters, few endemic fishes, and Gulf of Mexico drainages.
Western Anatolia
Western Anatolia is a freshwater ecoregion (FEOW 429) spanning the Aegean coast of Anatolian Turkey between the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean, known for endemic fishes.
Western Bug
Western Bug (Західний Буг, Polish Bug): 772 km river rising in western Ukraine, flowing to the Narew and Vistula basin; 363 km forms the Poland-Ukraine-Belarus border, distinct from the Southern Bug.
Western Caspian Drainages
Western Caspian Drainages: a Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW) ecoregion on the western Caspian coast, covering Terek, Sulak, and nearby rivers draining into the endorheic Caspian Sea.
Western Congolian swamp forests
Western Congolian swamp forests (Forêts marécageuses de l'ouest du Congo): tropical freshwater swamp forest ecoregion on the right bank of the Congo River in ROC, DRC, and CAR, part of the world's largest swamp forest complex with Raphia palm stands and carbon-rich peat.
Western Equatorial Crater Lakes
Western Equatorial Crater Lakes, FEOW ecoregion 519, is a set of volcanic crater lakes in southwestern Cameroon on the Cameroon Volcanic Line, famous for endemic cichlid flocks in Barombi Mbo, Bermin, and Ejagham and severe conservation threats.
Western Hudson Bay
Western Hudson Bay is FEOW freshwater ecoregion 111, Polar freshwaters, covering watersheds in northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the NWT, and Nunavut draining via the Thelon, Seal, and Thlewiaza rivers into Hudson Bay.
Western Interior Seaway
Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway or Niobraran Sea: a shallow epeiric sea splitting North America into Laramidia and Appalachia from Jurassic to Paleocene, from Gulf of Mexico to Arctic, leaving coal, oil, and chalk deposits.
Western Madagascar
Western Madagascar (FEOW ecoregion 579) is a xeric freshwater ecoregion covering the Manambolo, Tsiribihina, Mangoky, and Onilahy river basins, defined by under 1400 mm annual rain, seasonal drying, karst tsingy habitats, and poorly surveyed, highly endemic fish faunas.
Western Orange
Western Orange (FEOW ecoregion 572) is a freshwater ecoregion of southern Namibia and northern South Africa covering the lower Orange River below the Vaal confluence, with Augrabies Falls as its only natural fish barrier and a largely xeric, impoverished fauna.
Western Port
Western Port is a tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, about 60 km southeast of Melbourne, a Ramsar wetland (site 267, listed 1982) of 59,956 hectares famed for migratory shorebirds, mangroves, seagrass, and saltmarsh.
Western Taiwan
Western Taiwan (FEOW ecoregion 757) is a freshwater ecoregion of Taiwan's west-draining basins, including Penghu; main rivers Tamshui, Zhuoshui, Kaoping; nearly a quarter of its fish species are endemic.
Wetland
Wetlands are water-saturated lands with hydrophytic vegetation and hydric soils, from marshes and bogs to mangroves. Defined by Ramsar (1971) and the EPA; 22% lost since 1970; largest biological methane source.
Wetland classification
Wetland classification systems group wetlands by hydrology, geomorphology, vegetation, and soils. Key frameworks: the U.S. Cowardin system (five systems, 56 classes), the Ramsar 42-type typology, and Brinson's HGM functional classification.
Wetland conservation in the United States
Wetland conservation in the United States covers Clean Water Act Section 404 regulation, mitigation banking, no-net-loss policy, and restoration programs protecting about 110 million acres of wetlands, reshaped by the 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision.
Wetland delineation
Wetland delineation is the field procedure of drawing the boundary between wetland and non-wetland areas on a parcel of land, usually for Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting.
Wetland flora of the British Isles
Wetland flora of the British Isles is the plant vegetation of fen, bog, marsh, swamp, and salt-marsh habitats, described as assemblages under the National Vegetation Classification.
Wetland indicator status
Wetland indicator status is a rating of how likely a plant species occurs in wetlands, assigned on the U.S. Army Corps' National Wetland Plant List.
Wetland Management Districts of Iowa
The Wetland Management Districts of Iowa are U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices protecting waterfowl habitat through scattered Waterfowl Production Areas and perpetual wetland easements rather than a single refuge.
Wetland Management Districts of Nebraska
The Wetland Management Districts of Nebraska are US Fish and Wildlife Service units managing scattered waterfowl production areas and easements, including the Rainwater Basin district established in 1963.
Wetland Protection Law of China
The Wetland Protection Law of China (中华人民共和国湿地保护法) is China's first dedicated wetland protection statute, approved in December 2021 and effective 1 June 2022, with per-square-meter penalties for wetland destruction.
Wetland restoration
Wetland restoration returns a degraded or formerly drained wetland to its pre-disturbance condition by re-establishing natural hydrology, substrate, and vegetation; full recovery of plant communities and nutrient cycling can take decades.
Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules (India)
The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules are India's central wetland regulations under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, first issued in 2010 and replaced in 2017 by state-led, wise-use management.
Wetlands of Tasmania
The wetlands of Tasmania are the island state's marshes, lagoons, peatlands, and saltmarshes, including 10 Ramsar sites, 89 nationally listed wetlands, and some of the southern hemisphere's most extensive blanket bogs.
Whalers Bay
Whalers Bay, Deception Island, South Shetland Islands: caldera bay and Antarctic Treaty HSM 71, site of the Norwegian Hektor whaling station (1912-1931), British Base B, and a geothermal shore visited by over 15,000 tourists yearly.
Whenuanuipapa Plain
Whenuanuipapa Plain: undersea plain in the South Pacific off eastern New Zealand, between East Cape and Mahia Peninsula, in the GEBCO gazetteer (UFI 9092933); name means 'a large tract of land'.
Whirlwind Inlet
Whirlwind Inlet, an inlet on the Bowman Coast, Antarctic Peninsula, between Cape Northrop and Tent Nunatak; fed by Flint, Demorest, Matthes, and Chamberlin Glaciers; named by Wilkins in 1928 after the Wright Whirlwind engine; a foehn-jet site on Larsen C.
White Nile
The White Nile is the longer Nile tributary, rising at Lake Victoria and flowing through the Sudd wetlands to join the Blue Nile at Khartoum, contributing about 28% of Nile discharge with steady year-round flow.
White Sea (Белое море)
The White Sea (Белое море) is a semi-landlocked Russian Arctic sea connected to the Barents Sea, with seasonal ice, low salinity from river discharge, dominant tides, and the historic port of Arkhangelsk.
White Volta
White Volta (Nakanbé in Burkina Faso), a 660 km river rising in Burkina Faso and flowing through northern Ghana to the Volta Reservoir; basin 92,880–107,417 km², September flood peak, Bagre Dam spillage flooding, major tributaries Red Volta, Kulpawn, Nasia.