List of Major Ideas
- Wetlands are important to the environment to maintain different ecosystems alive, they are know for plants that adapted to flooding these plants are called hydrophytes
- Biodiversity in wetlands are as diverse as the rain forests
- The physical appearance of wetlands depends of were they are located and it also depends on how near they are to a water of body
- Fluctuating water levels are central to all wetlands
- Wetlands are being destroyed because people are building near them and in them .
- There is a conflict of how to protect wetlands because of their different characteristics
- Between the 1950s and the 1970s more than nine million acres— an area equivalent to the combined size of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island—were wiped out.
- The recognition that wetlands are shallow-water systems, or areas where water is at or near the surface for some time.
- Wetlands can also flourish on slopes and at the base of slopes, supplied by springs, and as bogs and fens fed by precipitation and groundwater.
- They can occur in cold climates where permafrost retains water and low evaporation rates prevail.
- The battle over wetlands has been a conflict between conservation and development.
- Landowners understandably want to know the exact effect of wetland regulations when they construct a house or road
- Recognizing the role of fluctuating water levels and the interrelation of the landscape is a first step
- Soil and geologic information can be gathered to identify long term shifts
- Two wetlands of similar size in different locations may have distinctly different attributes, functions and therefore value.
- When such fluctuations cannot be maintained, remedial management should be undertaken to simulate natural hydro-logic pulses
Author's Main PointThe authors' main point is to emphasize the importance of wetlands. He clearly is concern how many wetlands are destroyed and how many them remain, he provides numerical data " that only six percent of all land is currently wetlands". There is dispute of what type of laws there should be to protect and restore wetlands. They want simple laws that are understood by landowners. They want policy makers to come up with the laws instead of scientists.Landowners just want to know how much they would need to repay for damaging wetlands . But wetlands are important to keep species alive such as the yellow bullhead during the dry season. Wetlands are referred as nature's kidneys. The reason behind the nickname is that they reduce pollution. They also store floodwater. They have an economic and ecological value.
|
My
|