|
Paludification
Paludification is the most common process by which peatlands in the boreal zone are formed. Formation The process is characterized by peat initialization on previously drier and vegetated habitats over inorganic soils, with no fully aquatic phase. Thus the paludification process includes a shift from forests, grassland or long exposed bare land to peatland. The initiation of this accumulation of organic matter (i.e. peat), can be controlled by both allogenic (i.e. external to the ecosystem) and autogenic (i.e. internal to the ecosystem) factors. The hydrological balance is critical for the initiation of peat. The hydrological balance can simply be defined as the difference between the incoming and outgoing amount of water (e.g. precipitation minus evapotranspiration and minus runoff). Usually it is considered that factors such as climate, geomorphology, geology and soils control this balance. However, paludification may also be just a result of the local accumulation of peat ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koitjärve Raba 05-2015
Koitjärve is a village in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County in northern Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a .... References Villages in Harju County Kreis Harrien {{Harju-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetlands
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free ( anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main wetla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil. Soil consists of a solid phase of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a porous phase that holds gases (the soil atmosphere) and water (the soil solution). Accordingly, soil is a three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases. Soil is a product of several factors: the influence of climate, relief (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), organisms, and the soil's parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time. It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, soil ecologists regard soil as an ecosystem. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muskeg
Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or peatland, and is a standard term in Western Canada and Alaska. The term became common in these areas because it is of Cree origin; (ᒪᐢᑫᐠ) meaning low-lying marsh. Muskeg consists of non-living organic material in various states of decomposition (as peat), ranging from fairly intact sphagnum moss, to sedge peat, to highly decomposed humus. Pieces of wood can make up five to fifteen percent of the peat soil. The water table tends to be near the surface. The sphagnum moss forming it can hold fifteen to thirty times its own weight in water, which allows the spongy wet muskeg to also form on sloping ground. Muskeg patches are ideal habitats for beavers, pitcher plants, agaric mushrooms and a variety of other organisms. Composit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kettle (landform)
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating glaciers, which become surrounded by sediment deposited by meltwater streams as there is increased friction. The ice becomes buried in the sediment and when the ice melts, a depression is left called a kettle hole, creating a dimpled appearance on the outwash plain. Lakes often fill these kettles; these are called kettle hole lakes. Another source is the sudden drainage of an ice-dammed lake. When the block melts, the hole it leaves behind is a kettle. As the ice melts, ramparts can form around the edge of the kettle hole. The lakes that fill these holes are seldom more than deep and eventually fill with sediment. In acid conditions, a kettle bog may form but in alkaline conditions, it will be kettle peatland. Overview Kettles are fluvio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main wetland typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Bogs
This is a list of bogs, wetland mires that accumulate peat from dead plant material, usually sphagnum moss. Bogs are sometimes called quagmires (technically all bogs are quagmires while not all quagmires are necessarily bogs) and the soil which composes them is sometimes referred to as muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens rather than bogs. Locations of bogs Europe Czech Republic *Modravské Slatě - a bog in the Šumava region of the Czech Republic *Rejvíz - a Czech Silesia, Moravian-Silesian peat bog with small lakes in the Czech Republic Estonia *Emajõe-Suursoo Nature Reserve, Emajõe-Suursoo - a large swampland around the river Emajõgi *Kakerdaja Bog - in Albu Parish *Kuresoo Bog in Soomaa National Park - a largest bog in Estonia ("Soomaa" means "Bogland") *Niitvälja Bog - is a fen in Harju County *Nigula Bog - a nature reserve in Pärnu County *Viru Bog - a bog in Lahemaa National Park in Harju County *Puhatu Bog - a vast swamp area located in Ida-Viru County La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. The water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure (where gauge pressure = 0). It may be visualized as the "surface" of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. The groundwater may be from precipitation or from groundwater flowing into the aquifer. In areas with sufficient precipitation, water infiltrates through pore spaces in the soil, passing through the unsaturated zone. At increasing depths, water fills in more of the pore spaces in the soils, until a zone of saturation is reached. Below the water table, in the phreatic zone (zone of saturation), layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers. In less permeable soils, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface is underlain by permafrost, with the total area of around 18 million km2. This includes substantial areas of Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Siberia. It can also be located on mountaintops in the Southern Hemisphere and beneath ice-free areas in the Antarctic. Permafrost does not have to be the first layer that is on the ground. It can be from an inch to several miles deep under the Earth's surface. It frequently occurs in ground ice, but it can also be present in non-porous bedrock. Permafrost is formed from ice holding various types of soil, sand, and rock in combination. Permafrost contains large amounts of biomass and decomposed biomass that has been stored as methane and carbon dioxide, making tundra soil a carbon sink. As global ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreal Ecosystem
A boreal ecosystem is an ecosystem with a subarctic climate located in the Northern Hemisphere, approximately between 50° to 70°N latitude. These ecosystems are commonly known as taiga and are located in parts of North America, Europe, and Asia. The ecosystems that lie immediately to the south of boreal zones are often called hemiboreal. There are a variety of processes and species that occur in these areas as well. The Köppen symbols of boreal ecosystems are Dfc, Dwc, Dfd, and Dwd. Boreal Species The species within boreal ecosystems varies as it consists of both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The species composition include many generalized and less specialized feeders. From the equator to the poles, species richness decreases, and there is a negative relationship with species richness changes as climate changes. However, despite not being as biodiverse as tropical systems, this area has a variety of species. Boreal ecosystems are filled with a multitude of flora s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Water
Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surface water is produced by precipitation. As the climate warms in the spring, snowmelt runs off towards nearby streams and rivers contributing towards a large portion of human drinking water. Levels of surface water lessen as a result of evaporation as well as water moving into the ground becoming ground-water. Alongside being used for drinking water, surface water is also used for irrigation, wastewater treatment, livestock, industrial uses, hydropower, and recreation. For USGS water-use reports, surface water is considered freshwater when it contains less than 1,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of dissolved solids. There are three major types of surface water. Permanent (perennial) surface waters are present year round, and includes lakes, rivers and wetlands (mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
