Wetlands

Literature review:

A wetland is an area that is covered by water throughout the year or throughout parts of the year. Wetlands have many functions such as providing a home for organisms but more importantly filtering and cleaning the water. A wetland’s health can be determined through the organisms that live there and whether or not it purifies the water.

When testing for the health of the water one can test many aspects, and because water is the most important part of the wetland, it is important to test as many aspects of water to ensure its quality. Turbidity is finding if the water is clear or not. Turbidity is caused by suspended solid matter in the water and high can be caused by numerous things such as: soil erosion, algal growth and

If the water is acidic or basic the chances of it being polluted is greater and because most organisms are only suited for certain pH levels [1] . Temperature of the water affects the type of life that live around the water. Temperature is important to water quality since it has direct corrolation to the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. Temperature is also important to life in and around the water. Temperature can be triggers to hatch certain invertebrates and many aquatic life have perfered temperature ranges [1&2] . Hardness is how much dissolved calcuim and magnesium mineral is in the water, hardness is measured in ppm. Low hardness can be linked to errosion problems while high hardness can be bad for the health of the wetland. An ideal hardness should be around 60 to 120 ppm. Water hardness can be further calculated into calcium hardness and magnesium hardness. CaCO3 X 0.4 = Ca ppm and CaCO3 X 0.24 = Mg ppm respectively. While both these minerals in water may contribute to our daily intake of salts, too much of something is never good for one’s health [1] . Oxygen content is the amount of oxygen present in water. Plants and animals in the water both require oxygen in order to survive.

Nitrates and nitrites in soil are important as they are part of the nitrogen cycle while also being essential to the plants in the wetland. Not only is nitrogen essential in the soil as it is the main site for the nitrogen cycle but it is also essential in plants as nitrogen is the base to form protein and is a component of the chlorophyll [3&4]. Water retention in the soil is also important as it provides the plants with water throughout the dry seasons such as winter and it also helps to prevent floods by absorbing most of the water. Clay being the most able to retain water and sandy soil being less likely to retain water