Marisma is a wetland swamp that is dominated by herbaceous plant species and not woody plants. Swamps can often be found on the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, or reeds. If there are woody plants, they tend to be low-growing shrubs. This form of vegetation is what differentiates marshes from other types of wetlands, such as swamps, which are dominated by trees, and bogs, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat.
White water lilies are a typical marsh plant in deeper water areas of Europe. Many types of birds nest in marshes.
Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flood conditions. Plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels. Many of these plants therefore have an aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves to the rooting zone. Swamp plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction. Well-known examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus, and sawgrass. The aquatic animalsFrom fish to salamanders, they can generally live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some may get oxygen from the air, while others can live indefinitely under low level of oxygen.
Marshes provide habitats for many types of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, water birds, and aquatic mammals. Wetlands have extremely high levels of biological production, some of the highest in the world, and are therefore important to support fisheries. Swamps also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants and sediment from the water that flows through them. Marshes (and other wetlands) can absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and release it slowly into streams, thereby reducing the magnitude of flooding. PH in marshes it tends to be neutral to alkaline, unlike peat bogs, where peat accumulates in more acidic conditions.
The salt marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors greatly influence the extent of plant and animal life that can survive and reproduce in these environments. The two main types of marshes are: freshwater marshes and saltwater marshes. These two can be found all over the world and each contains a different set of organisms.
