Types of bogs and their characteristics

In this article, one of the most common natural formations is considered, which is a wetland area of the earth's surface with a layer of peat and peculiar vegetative forms typical for such localities, adapted to conditions with a lack of oxygen, with weak water flow and excess moisture.

Here, various types of bogs with their brief characteristics will be presented.

general information

There are 3 main signs of marshes:

• Redundancy and stagnation of water.
• The presence of a specific, characteristic for marshes, vegetation.
• The process of peat formation.

Wetlands are usually called areas where the roots of plants can not reach the mineral soil.

Education

Before we know what are the main types of marshes, we will find out how they are formed.

To form such areas, constant moisture redundancy in the soil and on its surface is necessary, as well as weak water exchange (including with groundwater). In turn, the lack of oxygen caused by excess moisture, makes air access to the ground difficult, due to which there is insufficient decomposition (or oxidation) of the remains of dying vegetation, and peat is formed. The latter is a soil substrate, which has a great water cut. It consists entirely of decomposed plants. Peat differs in different degrees of decomposition. For example, the degree of decomposition of 70% means that 70 percent of dead plants are decomposed, and 30 is not. This type of substrate has an excellent water-retaining capacity, so it has a rather high water content (about 97% of the total volume).

Types of bogs and their characteristics

According to the forms and conditions of feeding, low-lying (in a different way eutrophic), transitional (mesotrophic) and upland (oligotrophic), respectively, having a concave, flat and convex surface shape are distinguished.

Under lowland (eutrophic) means marshes located in depressions, with soil moistened by surface and groundwater, rich in mineral salts. Horse feeds mainly feed on sediments from the atmosphere, which are not very rich in mineral salts. Transitional moors are an intermediate group.

According to the vegetation prevailing in the locality, forest, herbaceous, shrubby and moss types of marsh are distinguished. On the microrelief - bumpy, flat, convex. The swamps are the most wetlands of the marshes.

Marshes of the Russian Federation

Types of marshes of Russia will be considered below. In the meantime, general information.

The area of marshes in Russia is about 1.4 million square meters. Km (about 10% of the total area of the country). According to rough estimates, about 3000 cubic meters are concentrated in them. M static natural water reserves.

Marshes are a rather complex natural complex. It consists of interconnected biotopes, which are characterized by strong moisture, the presence of a kind of moisture-loving vegetation and the accumulation of various organic residues in the form of silt or peat. In the conditions of different Russian climate, relief, and depending on the bedrock types, different types of marshes develop, each of which is characterized by peat deposits, water supply conditions and its runoff, vegetation characteristics.

The following types of feeding of the marshes of Russia are distinguished: lowland, upper and transitional.

On the nature of nutrition

By describing the conditions of nutrition, we mean the modern surface of the swamp and the presence of that upper layer of the substrate where the plant roots are. For each type of bog, their power sources are slightly higher.

Excess moisture is the main sign of any swamp. It causes the emergence of specific species of animals and vegetation, as well as peculiar special humification conditions, which in a temperate climate usually lead to incomplete decay of vegetation residues and the formation of peat.

Geographic distribution of bogs in the Russian Federation

Russian bogs are widespread in almost all natural zones, but mainly in the drainless, excessively moistened depressions. Their main mass is concentrated in the central regions and in the northwest of the West Siberian Plain.

The most waterlogged territories in Russia are the tundra and the taiga zone. Types of marshes here are very diverse. Wetlands in some areas of the tundra are 50%. About 80% of all peat bogs are concentrated in the taiga zones . In the European part of Russia the most waterlogged are the Vologda, Leningrad Oblasts and the Republic of Karelia (approximately 40%).

The taiga of Western Siberia is swamped up to 70 percent. A huge number of marshes and in the Far East, mostly in the Amur region.

Distribution of marshes by types

Types of wetlands of Russia are territorially distributed unevenly. Half of the total swampy area is occupied by the mountain, and they predominate in the northern regions. The lowlands constitute less than half (about 40%) of the area of all the marshes. Quite insignificant areas are occupied by transitional marshes (10%).

Most of the lowland bogs feed on river or groundwater, and they are found mostly in arid areas. And these are valleys and deltas of large rivers. Swamplands are mostly fed by atmospheric precipitation, and more often they are found in the taiga and tundra zones of Eurasia. The main part (84%) of the decoated areas is in the Asian part of Russia.

And what is the predominant type of swamp in the North? The lowland swamps of the west of Siberia occupy 42%. Most of the decayed land (about 73%) is confined to the area of permafrost territories.

Vegetative cover

In the lowland swamps the following plants prevail: birch fluffy, black alder, willow, pine and spruce. Among herbs, sedge is predominant here, and reeds and reed grasses are found from grasses. Most of the mosses are green mosses.

Birch and pine are characteristic of transitional bogs (in Siberia - Dahurian and Siberian larch, cedar), and also willow (slightly less often than in lowland bogs). Of the grasses, the same vegetation is widespread here, as well as in lowland marshes, but not in such significant quantities. Most often here you can find alpine poochos, reed grass, sedge bottle and woolly. There is also vegetation, characteristic of the upper marshes.

On the swamps of the upland there are pine (in Siberia, cedar is mixed with it) and Dahurian larch. There are no shrubs here at all, but the group of heather ones prevails in these places: kassandra, heather, ledum, blueberry and cranberry. There also abundantly grow birch dwarf and cataract (crowberry). Distributed in such places and cotton grass is a single-headed (herbaceous plant), forming large hummock-sod. It is often possible to meet cloudberries with sundew. Mosses are represented here only by sphagnum.

Thus, according to the nature of the peat and the vegetation cover, it is also possible to judge (as noted above) what type of marsh is.

In conclusion about environmental problems

In recent years, more and more negative processes have emerged due to the excessive, destructive exploitation of marshes. First of all, this pollution, excess water intake from the ground and mass extraction of peat. Also, an important role in this was played by dehumidification and plowing, violation of the hydrology regime in the construction of roads, gas and oil pipelines and other structures.

Dehumidification often leads to peat fires, to land degradation and loss of biodiversity in the biological world. All work should be carried out carefully, with mandatory conservation of most of the wetlands. It is necessary to observe the rules of conservation of ecological balance in nature.