Wetlands

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-030383",
  "term": "Wetlands",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. Areas that are soaked or flooded by surface or ground water frequently enough or for sufficient duration to support plants, birds, animals, and aquatic life. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, estuaries, and other inland and coastal areas, and are federally protected. Wetlands frequently serve as recharge/discharge areas and are known as \"nature's kidneys\" since they help purify water. Wetlands also have been referred to as natural sponges that absorb flood waters, functioning like natural tubs to collect overflow. Wetlands are important wildlife habitats, breeding grounds, and nurseries because of their biodiversity. Many endangered species as well as countless estuarine and marine fish and shellfish, mammals, waterfowl, and other migratory birds use wetland habitat for growth, reproduction, food, and shelter. Wetlands are among the most fertile, natural ecosystems in the world since they produce great volumes of food (plant material).\n\n2. An area that is saturated by surface or ground water with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries.\n\n3. Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. (Source: Appendix A of the 2003 Construction General Permit [PDF Format])\n\n4. Any number of tidal and nontidal areas characterized by saturated or nearly saturated soils most of the year that form an interface between terrestrial (land-based) and aquatic environments; including freshwater marshes around ponds and channels (rivers and streams), brackish and salt marshes; other common names include swamps and bogs.\n\n5. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency or duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include playa lakes, swamps, marshes, bogs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, prairie river overflows, mudflats, and natural ponds.\n\n6. An area that is saturated by surface water or groundwater with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as in swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries.\n\n7. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soils; wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.\n\n8. Areas regularly saturated by surface or groundwater and subsequently characterized by a prevalence of vegetation adapted for life in saturated-soil conditions.\n\n9. Lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or where shallow water covers the land and where at least one of the following attributes holds: (1) at least periodically, the land supports aquatic plants predominantly; (2) undrained hydric soils are the predominant substrate; and (3) at some time during the growing season, the substrate is saturated with water or covered by shallow water (Cowardin et al. 1979). \"An area that is saturated by surface or ground water with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries (EPA 1993, 30).\n\n10. Any number of tidal and nontidal areas characterized by saturated or nearly saturated soils most of the year that form an interface between terrestrial (land-based) and aquatic environments; include freshwater marshes around ponds and channels (rivers and streams), brackish and salt marshes; other common names include swamps and bogs.\n\n11. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. [40 CFR 232.2 (CFR 2013)][40 CFR 122.2 (CFR 2013)][40 CFR 401.11 (CFR 2017)]\n\n12. Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.\n\n13. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency or duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include playa lakes, swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas such as sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, prairie river overflows, mudflats, and natural ponds.\n\n14. Transitional zone between land and water that is periodically flooded. For example, marshes, swamps and bogs are all wetlands.\n\n15. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.\n\n16. Wetlands consist of areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.(2) Where wetlands are adjacent to open water, they generally constitute the transition to upland.\n\n17. Generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. As defined in 40 CFR 230.3 and the HRS, wetlands are those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Such areas can be natural or constructed. Only areas that meet this definition are eligible to be evaluated as wetlands for HRS purposes. Wetlands identified using other definitions (e.g., the Food Security Act of 1985, the wetlands classification system of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the 1989 Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Wetlands) are not eligible unless they also meet the 40 CFR 230.3 definition (see HRSGD Section 11.1). Additionally, for HRS purposes, isolated wetlands and wetlands contiguous to rivers, lakes, and coastal tidal waters are defined as surface water bodies.",
  "synonyms": [
    "Bogs"
  ],
  "subject": "Water",
  "see_also": [
    "Swamps"
  ],
  "references": [
    "Environmental Issues Terms & Acronyms; Pesticides Glossary",
    "Terms of Env; Aquatic Biodiversity Glossary; Terms of Environment; EPA Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/NPS/chesbay502/pdf/chesbay_glossary.pdf",
    "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Glossary",
    "Drinking Water Technical & Legal Terms",
    "Oil Pollution Prevention Glossary",
    "Urban Watershed Management Research Terminology",
    "Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-level Rise Glossary and Acronyms",
    "Greenhouse Gas Emissions",
    "Environmental Modeling and Assessment Program (EMAP) Master Glossary",
    "Drinking Water Tech & Legal",
    "40 CFR 120.2 (CFR 2020)",
    "40 CFR 503.9 (CFR 2013)",
    "40 CFR 110.1 (CFR 2013)",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "40 CFR 230.3 (CFR 2013); 40 CFR 300.5 (CFR 2018)",
    "40 CFR 230.41 (CFR 2018)",
    "Hazard Ranking System Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/wetlands/"
}