Section 1 Introduction
Targets
At the end of this Unit you should be able to answer the following questions
1. What is a wetland ecosystem?
1.1 What are various types of wetlands and why do they matter?
1.2 What plants and animals might be found in a wetland site?
1.3 What adaptations improve plant and animal suitability for life in a wetland?
An ecosystem is a community of nonliving and living things. Plants, animals, and smaller organisms live, feed, reproduce, and interact in the same area or environment. This means that an ecosystem is a set of relationships among living things in a given area. Ecosystems are of many kinds, depending on the geography (location), geology (rocks), and climate of the area. Three types of ecosystems are listed below.
Wetland ecosystems have many names: prairie pothole, slough, marsh, carr, swamp, mangrove forest or swamp, muskeg, fen, mire, bog and peatland. However, wetlands have a common characteristic. In a wetland ecosystem, the ground is very wet.