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31 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are wetlands characterised by?
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The presence of water, soils that differ in composition from those that make up the surrounding catchment, plant community dominated by hydrophytes
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What are hydrophytes?
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Water-loving plants
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Where do herbaceous wetland plants grow?
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in dense floating mats or in monodominant rooted stands
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What is another name for dense floating mats?
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Sudd
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Where may deep peat deposits accumulate?
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Beneath herbaceous wetland and swamp forests
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What may deep peat deposits contain?
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A record of the vegetation development at the site
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Where are wetlands situated?
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Between terrestrial and aquatic systems
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Are the food webs within wetlands terrestrial or aquatic?
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Largely aquatic
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What does it mean that wetland food webs are split?
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Primary production occurs in the air, secondary production and decomposition mostly occur in water
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Why is aquatic primary production in swamps low?
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Because little light reaches the water surface.
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In what way are wetland plants highly productive and efficient?
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They sequester nutrients and utilise C4 photosynthesis
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What happens to plant material produced in wetlands?
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Little is consumed by animals, most of it dies and decomposes in the water and flooded soils
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What constitutes a major loss of organic matter in tropical wetlands?
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Fire
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Related to what does aquatic plant communities form distinct zones?
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Water depth
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Where are these zones formed?
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From the shoreline into the deeper water of lakes and rivers.
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What is a ecological process that follow a predictable sequence that wetland vegetation may undergo?
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Succession
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What is succession divided into?
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Primary and secondary; autogenic and allogenic
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Where does Primary succession occur?
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On bare sites (sand dunes, volcanic mud flows and newly formed islands)
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Primary succession leads from () to () of the () by a ()
(Insert the missing words) |
First colonisation to occupation of the site by a climax community
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What is secondary succession? Include examples.
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Replaces a previous community following a disturbance. Invasion of abandoned fields. forest replacing another destroyed by fire or a hurricane.
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What is autogenic succession?
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Directed from within the ecosystem itself with habitat changes brought about by the biota
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What is allogenic succession?
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Driven by forces outside the ecosystem
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What are stages in a succession called?
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Seres
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What are early seral communities known as?
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Pioneer communities
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What does a succession end with?
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A climax community
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Pioneer species alter the environment in a way that may facilitate.....?
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The invasion of other species
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What rules may primary succession follow?
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The rules of community assembly
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Do autotrophs or heterotrophs become established first?
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Autotrophs usually become established first
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What is the community that develops on a particular site determined by?
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The chance arrival of a propagule, the suitability of the environment, competition between and within species and the intensity of inhibitory processes
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Wetlands reduce x
trap x and x and enhance x |
flood flows, sediments and nutrients, downstream water quality
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How do humans use wetlands?
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water supply, food resources, building materials, energy sources (peat) and recreation
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