Have you ever wondered what a swamp is? Or, perhaps, it was curious to know in more detail about the nature of its occurrence and the main features? If so, I note that you are far from the only ones so inquisitive.

For example, since childhood, I wanted to understand why so many secrets and legends are associated with this area among the people, what is so unusual about it and what plants and animals inhabit it.

Section 1. General definition of the concept

A rather complex natural formation is called a swamp, which is a site of various sizes, on which a huge amount of moisture is constantly concentrated, both low-flow and stagnant. It should also be noted that although the swamp ecosystem is in most cases stable and perfectly balanced, it is also fraught with many mysteries. For example, many do not know that a given body of water, such as a typhoon, is characterized by the presence of a so-called eye, which is a small, absolutely clean lake.

Most of the swamps on our planet are located in the tropical and subtropical zones. It is hard to imagine that their total area is millions of hectares.

Of course, every student will immediately answer that the area around in South America is considered the most swampy. However, Russia can boast of having the largest reservoir of this type in the world - Vasyugan Lake can be seen in Western Siberia.

Section 2. What is a swamp and how is it formed?

At first glance, it may seem that all the current swamps were once lakes, but this is not entirely true. How, then, to explain the fact of their occurrence on the land?

Let's imagine a small area that has been damaged by a forest fire. For greater clarity, let's mentally draw before our eyes the black remains of trees, branches, ash and burnt stumps firmly sitting in the soil.

Nature at all costs will try to heal its wounds, which means that some time will pass, and the first plants to appear in such a forest, for example, moss, which is called cuckoo flax in nature. Due to the lack of foliage on the branches, lower vegetation will receive more moisture. Gradually, the speed of its growth will gain more and more momentum. If the rampant growth continues long enough, it will eventually change the character of the soil itself, making it wetter.

There is another way. According to experts, if for some reason a poorly permeable layer is formed underground at a not too great depth, it will definitely retain moisture in the upper layers, as a result of which, as in the first case, they will gradually appear, change the nature of the soil, turning it into marshy .

Section 3. What is a swamp, its flora and fauna

As a matter of fact, it does not matter in what way this or that swamp was formed, in any case, it will gradually grow.

Undoubtedly, at first these changes will be hardly noticeable, but it will take several years, or even decades, and the peat layer will become stronger. Let's put it this way: in about 1000 years, in place of a burnt forest, it will already be ten or even twelve meters high.

Trees will appear here. Wetlands are characterized by the presence of birch, pine, spruce or alder. If the humidity is high enough, then all plants tend to take on an unusual shape.

Most of the inhabitants of these territories, say, insects and amphibians, are quite small or very tiny, but there are also large representatives.

If we talk about the entire territory of the planet as a whole, then it is in the swamps that predators such as pythons or alligators live, crocodiles hunting smaller prey are also frequent guests. Of herbivores, it is impossible not to note nutria, tapirs, muskrats and beavers. Unfortunately, the drainage of swamps leads to a significant reduction in their numbers.

Large ungulates also adapt to such a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Nature has made sure that the hooves of, for example, Asian buffaloes are widened. This greatly increases the area of ​​support, and heavy animals, although they can wander through the swamp, sinking to the chest, they will never completely get stuck.

I love reading fairy tales to my grandchildren, I know most of these fairy tales by heart. And in many of them, swamps have a special role - they often serve as a home for all kinds of evil spirits. They often scare children, who then develop discomfort at the mention of only one word: "swamp".

But now I'm going to dispel the established myths about swamps, showing their positive aspects.

Swamp - what is it

From a scientific point of view, the swamp is a separate area of ​​the landscape where excessive moisture levels, as well as very moisture-loving and lively soils. In addition, a swamp is called an ordinary body of water, which does not have access to fresh water and gradually grows.

The swamps are famous for the diversity of their flora and fauna, despite their specificity.

Marshes appear, as a rule, in those places where groundwater finds its way to the surface. In addition, over time, the area where they were deforestation. After all, there are no trees left that can absorb groundwater. Frequent swamps and river mouths that get flooded.

What are swamps

There are many criteria by which swamps are divided. But the main one is the sources of their "nutrition". They are:

• lowland (or eutrophic). They have a very rich diet, they use groundwater. Such swamps can lie in floodplains, in places where springs come out, on the shores of lakes and other low-lying areas;
• riding (or oligotrophic). They, unlike the lowlands, feed on sediments that are not rich in minerals. The water in them is especially acidic. Due to the accumulated peat, their surface often becomes convex;
• And transitional (mesotrophic). As their name suggests, these swamps are an intermediate stage between the two described above. They have a moderate water and mineral diet.

It should be noted that raised bogs are divided into two types: forest(with low pines, heather and various mosses) and ridge-hollow(without trees, there are only peat hummocks).

The role of swamps

It may seem that swamps do not play an important role. But it's not. It is in the swamps that you can harvest a rich harvest. medicinal plants. Here live such species that are of no small importance in au pair(otters, black grouse, wild boars, muskrats, capercaillie...).

The swamp air is rich oxygen. But the most important role of swamps is groundwater level regulation by controlling their flow.

We must not forget about the production there peat which is used today in many industries.

I hope that after reading this story, you have learned something new about the swamps.

Swamp. Moscow region

swamps called areas of the earth's surface, characterized by excessive moisture in the upper horizons of soils and rocks, the development of swamp vegetation and the formation of peat. One of the main features of the swamp is the process of peat accumulation, the thickness of which is quite large, and the roots of plants are located entirely in it, not reaching the underlying mineral base. In contrast, wetlands are often distinguished. These include areas where the thickness of peat is small and the roots of plants reach the mineral base. Apparently, such a distinction is conditional, and boggy lands, having the same characteristics, represent in essence the initial stage of the development of bogs.
Bogs occupy vast areas in Russia, but are unevenly distributed. The largest number of swamps is concentrated in the northern and northwestern regions of the forest zone, where in some places the swampiness reaches 30-40%. In the southern and southeastern direction, the degree of swampiness decreases and in the forest-steppe zone does not exceed one or even tenths of a percent. The total area occupied by swamps on the globe, according to data, is estimated at 175 million hectares.
Bogs are formed on various elements of the relief - wherever conditions are created for excessive soil moisture. In Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as in the north of the European part of Russia, swamping is facilitated by the presence of impermeable permafrost rocks lying close to the surface. In other areas, clayey rocks of various genesis are aquicludes. Marshes are formed both within the continents and on the coastal lowlands. According to the nature of water and mineral nutrition, the composition of the vegetation cover, and the shape of the surface of the swamps within the continents, they are divided into lowland, upland and transitional.

• lowland swamps

Lowland swamps are located in relief depressions and are characterized by a flat or concave surface. In addition to atmospheric precipitation, ground or river waters, which have a significantly higher content of mineral nutrients, participate in their nutrition. Therefore, the so-called autotrophic vegetation develops here, that is, vegetation that is demanding on nutritional conditions (sedges, horsetails, green mosses, and from trees - alder, birch). Peatlands formed from the remains of autotrophic vegetation often have a high ash content and low calorific value. Lowland swamps often form on the site of lake reservoirs, which gradually overgrow and become swampy. The intensity of overgrowing and swamping of a reservoir depends on the topography of its bottom and banks. The processes of overgrowing and swamping are widespread in lakes with a flat bottom and gently sloping shores; in the lakes there is an intensive process of sedimentation, the formation of various silts. In this process, a significant role belongs to the smallest planktonic organisms, which, when dying, fall to the bottom of the reservoir and form loose sapropel sediment.
Dying vegetation falls to the bottom of the reservoir, where it accumulates and undergoes only weak decomposition due to a lack of oxygen in the water. As the lake becomes shallower, vegetation captures more and more new spaces, coastal plants move closer to the center of the reservoir, maintaining the same sequence. All these types of vegetation form peat of the corresponding composition.
The process proceeds somewhat differently in stagnant lakes with steep banks and greater depth near the latter. In such lakes, in places protected from wind and unrest, floating vegetation settles on the surface of the water - calla, cinquefoil with long rhizomes creeping along the surface, inside which mosses and some other plants settle. In this way, a "carpet" of vegetation floating on the water is formed, called a quagmire. As the power of the "carpet" increases, the alloy sinks. From below, dead, semi-decomposed parts of plants come off from it and fall to the bottom, where they accumulate. This process can gradually lead to the fact that the quagmire and the plant remains accumulating on the bottom will close up and turn from a "unsteady" swamp (when the raft covers the water surface of the lake) into a continuous dense swamp.

• Raised bogs

Raised bogs are usually located on watersheds and have a convex surface. Groundwater in them lies deep, and the main supply is carried out mainly by surface (atmospheric) waters, poor in mineral salts. As a result, oligotrophic vegetation develops here, which is not very demanding on the content of nutrients, and among it the most important peat former is sphagnum moss. The remains of such vegetation form peat accumulations, which are characterized by high caloric content and low ash content.

• transitional swamps

Transitional swamps with mesotrophic vegetation, which differs in its characteristics by an intermediate character, since its growth requires a relatively small amount of minerals. However, in a number of cases, all these types of swamps are connected by mutual transitions and represent only different stages of a single complex development process. One of the first to draw attention to this was V.N. Sukachev, then this was reflected in the work of other researchers who used a huge amount of aerial photography material. At the same time, the following development scheme is outlined. In the lowland swamp, in the initial stages of its formation, the vegetation receives the largest amount of nutritious mineral salts from silts. As peat grows, conditions change. Vegetation no longer reaches the silts, but feeds only on the mineral substances found in peat. Each new generation of plants will extract nutrients from the semi-decomposed remains of the previous generation, and gradually there will be more and more depletion of mineral salts. Finally, a moment may come when there will not be enough nutrients for autotrophic vegetation. It is then replaced by a less demanding, mesotrophic one. The process developing further in the same direction leads to the change of mesotrophic vegetation to oligotrophic and, consequently, to the transition of one type of swamp to another. Due to the fact that nutrient depletion proceeds unevenly over the swamp area, uneven conditions are created in its central and marginal parts. The outskirts of the swamp receive more nutrients due to the flow of water from the surrounding dry lands, while at the same time, their significant lack can be felt in the center. Therefore, undemanding oligotrophic plants, in particular sphagnum moss, appear primarily in the center. The growth of sphagnum peat in the center affects the shape of the swamp surface. Instead of flat or concave, it gradually becomes convex. Shrubs and woody vegetation (pine) can settle on the surface of the central part of the swamp. In swamps located in river floodplains and deltas, such nutrient depletion is usually not observed due to river floods, the waters of which contain dissolved salts and fine silt suspensions.

• Marshes of the seaside lowlands

Marshes of coastal lowlands are typical for tropical and subtropical zones. They are developed on the low Atlantic coast of North America, on the islands of Indonesia and in other areas. A feature of the coastal lowlands is significant watering. They periodically during high tides or are constantly flooded with water. In such conditions, forest swamps prevail. At the same time, woody vegetation adapts to a long existence under water by a peculiar development of the root system. It diverges in different directions along radii or knee-shaped bends from the tree trunk and is equipped with breathing devices located above the water level. These aerial "breathing roots" supply air to the underwater parts of the root system. Diverging from the trunk in all directions, they serve as props and ensure the stability of the tree. An example is the mangrove forests of the tropics.

swamp deposits

Typical bog sediments are some chemogenic and especially organogenic sediments. The first of these include bog lime or bog marl, as well as bog or turf iron ores. Their formation is associated with the introduction of the corresponding compounds into the swamps by groundwater. swamp lime It is formed when swamps are fed by hard groundwater, with a high content of dissolved calcium carbonates. Ferrous compounds brought by groundwater form swamp iron ores. Under reducing marsh conditions, ferruginous compounds precipitate in the form of a creamy mass, corresponding in composition to that formed from various remains of marsh vegetation - mosses, grasses, shrubs and trees. These deposited organic residues are further subjected to complex processes of decomposition and transformation.
Plant fiber, which consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, is of the greatest importance in the formation of peat. In this case, a necessary condition is the transformation of the original organic matter without air access, since otherwise it will oxidize and pass into simple inorganic compounds, CO 2, etc. In swamps, where large thicknesses of plant residues saturated with water accumulate, there is no or almost there are no conditions for the penetration of atmospheric oxygen, especially in that part of them that is located deeper than the surface of the swamp and is buried by accumulating sediments. In this case, there is a very slow decomposition and transformation of organic matter with the help of numerous microorganisms (bacteria and lower fungi), and part of it remains almost unchanged in peat. In the process of such decomposition, the carbon content increases to 57-59%. At the same time, during the decomposition of plant residues, humic substances are formed. This slow process of cellulose decay, which takes place without access to air and leads to the formation of peat, is called humification, or the initial stages of coalification. Thus, peat is a semi-decomposed dead plant residues of brown, brown or almost black color.

Sources

• Gorshkov G.P., Yakushova A.F. General geology. - Ed. Moscow University, third edition, 1973

Today we were given a task - to write a report about the swamp! I didn’t know what it was, so I started looking on the Internet and asking my dad. There's more on the internet than dad told me!

Here is my report, read it!

What is a swamp?

This is a very wet area of ​​the earth's surface, overgrown with moisture-loving plants. In a swamp, undecomposed plant residues usually accumulate and peat is formed.

What swamps are in nature?

In order to understand this, you need to understand how swamps arise.
All swamps are divided into lowland and upland. The lowland ones feed on water from underground, and the upland ones feed on various precipitation.
Some swamps occur in the coastal part of large water bodies - lakes or seas. In those parts of the coast where the soil consists of small clay particles, a type of swamp is gradually formed, which is called a "march". A significant part of the march is covered with water, either permanently or flooded at high tide.
Forest swamps look completely different. Waterlogging of the forest is a common occurrence, especially in the north of our country.
Swamps of a different type are formed along the valleys and floodplains of the rivers. They are associated with groundwater, which leaches minerals from the soil into the swamp, so rich vegetation forms on these swamps.
Another type of swamp formation is the swamping of lakes.

Animals and plants of swamps

swamp animals

Multicellular algae form thickets in swamps, giving shelter to a variety of invertebrate worms, molluscs, and crustaceans.
Consider the various representatives living in the swamps.

The common snake is a non-venomous snake. Snakes are found in grassy swamps. They are good swimmers, zigzagging their bodies and sticking their heads above the water.

Marshy forests are the habitat of the common viper. These are poisonous snakes, the body length is less than 1m. Their bite, although painful, is not fatal if medical attention is provided in a timely manner.

In the thickets of reeds, reeds, horsetails and other plants that form a dense bristle above the surface of the swamp from closely standing tall and narrow stems and linear leaves, they quickly scurry in pursuit of smaller insects - dragonflies.

Among the leaves of water lilies floating on the water, egg capsules and the stems of the above-mentioned plants protruding above the water, large dolomed spiders run, bordered on the sides of the body by a strip of cream color.

Water bugs also live here. They glide along the surface of the reservoir, like skaters, furrowing its smooth surface in different directions.

Not far from the coast, flocks of black-colored insects with a metallic sheen attract attention, which swim quickly, making sharp turns, circling and spinning. These are predatory beetles. They prey on small insects that live in the water or that have fallen into the water.

The only one among spiders is the silver water spider, which arranges a kind of dwelling under water in the form of a web bell. When immersed in water, it becomes, as it were, silver,

In addition to water strider bugs living on the surface of the water, many other types of bugs live in fresh water, which stay under water and lead a different lifestyle there.

In addition to water bugs and spiders, the inhabitants of fresh waters include various bugs and their larvae. The largest of them are swimmers and water lovers. Swimming larvae are very aggressive and attack all living things that are close to them. Where many swimming larvae live, they cause significant damage to fisheries.

A different structure and behavior in the larvae of another beetle - water-loving. Its larva has short massive chewing jaws, it is inactive, as it feeds on slowly moving animals: water snails, fry.

Beetles and bedbugs living in water can fly from one reservoir to another and thus expand their area of ​​​​distribution.

This is only a small part of the animal world of swamps.

Various birds live here - storks, bitterns. These are very beautiful birds.

swamp plants

The true treasury of swamps is its flora. There are trees and shrubs, shrubs and herbs, mosses and lichens, mushrooms and algae. Among all these plants there are berry and medicinal, melliferous and coloring, starchy and tannic, ethereal and poisonous, or combining a whole bunch of useful properties. About 300 species of flowering plants are found in swamps in swampy forests.

Pure white water lily large snow-white water lily flower. It grows in quiet backwaters of rivers and deep hollows of swamps. Flowers reach 12 cm in diameter, and rounded leaves - 30 cm.
The water lily is a living clock. In the evening at 6-7 o'clock its flowers close and plunge into the water, and in the morning, also at 6-7 o'clock, they appear above the water and open again.

Common reed. The ubiquitous reed is found from the forest-tundra to the tropics. It forms floodplains in river mouths, thickets in the shallow waters of lakes and on saline coasts of the seas, phytocenoses in open and forest lowland and transitional swamps. In swamps, under optimal conditions, it reaches a height of 2 m, and in extreme conditions - only 50-70 cm.

Sedges. The most common marsh plants are sedges: about 40 species of them are found in peat bogs, along the banks of rivers and lakes, in swampy forests and meadows. Sedge height: 10cm.

Valerian officinalis. It can also be found in lowland swamps, in swampy meadows, on wet forest edges. The healing properties of valerian have been known since ancient Rome. WITH

The cup is yellow. This is a constant neighbor of the water lily.
The capsule has long been known in folk medicine. Decoctions of rhizomes and flowers were considered a good cough remedy. Infusions of leaves and stems have been used in some kidney diseases.

Hellebore common. It is an inhabitant of wet meadows, individual lowland swamps and wet thickets of shrubs.
Hellebore is very poisonous! Already 2g of fresh hellebore roots can kill a horse. Cattle usually do not touch hellebore, but young animals still often die after eating it, and even their meat becomes poisonous. Hellebore poisons penetrate the blood even through the skin.

Veh is poisonous. This is a perennial plant with a thick rhizome and large leaves dissected into narrow lobes. It is found in lowland swamps, swampy meadows, along the banks of rivers and lakes. Especially poisonous is the milestone rhizome, pink from the inside,

Swamp cranberry. Everyone knows cranberries, but not everyone knows that this is a very capricious plant. Its berries are very useful, they have a lot of vitamins.

Swamps in our area

There are a lot of swamps in the Tomsk region, you can even say that it is a solid swamp. And the Vasyugan swamp located on its territory is the largest in the world. If it suddenly dries up, the climate on the entire planet will change!

Significance of swamps

Swamps are a unique gene pool that requires especially careful treatment, since man is extremely active in stepping on swamps and transforming them into new artificial landscapes.

Swamps can be called a chronicle of nature, exploring the swamps layer by layer, revealing the historical facts of the Earth, expanding knowledge about the climate of the planet, vegetation and animals of past eras.

Wetlands are habitats for rare and endangered animal species. These are the main places where geese, ducks, herons, bitterns, etc. keep. Beavers settle on forest lakes with swampy shores. In swamp lakes there is carp, tench, pike.

The significance of swamps is great in the life of our vast planet, and of an individual person. And the attitude of a modern person to swamps should be modern and noble. When picking berries in swamps, it is necessary to litter it as little as possible.

And be sure to remember that in the swamp you need to be very careful, it is very insidious and deceptive in appearance.

Swamps at all times both attracted and frightened people. They attracted with their secret and instilled fear with the dangers that lie in wait for those who were in their power. That is probably why so many legends and legends, beliefs, epics, and sometimes tales about swamps and their invisible inhabitants, about healers, about miraculous healings and ancient rites have been preserved.

The swamp has its own guardian spirit, the owner. The Slavs called him a swamp. It is he who frightens those walking through the swamp with sharp sounds, sighs, and loud smacking. It is he who lures the self-confident and careless into the quagmire and, on the contrary, shows a safe path to those who treat nature with respect. The swamp has many neighbors, these are mermen, lords of the waters, and goblin, and kikimors. The swamp endows its original inhabitants with unprecedented power, such as, for example, the giant Yar Mort, a character in Finno-Ugric mythology.

The Celts called the swamps "the gates of the spirits" - where the seemingly solid ground instantly disappears from under their feet, the gates to the world of the mysterious spirits of nature and deities open. Therefore, the Celts revered the swamps and came there with sacrificial gifts. The Khanty and Mansi believed that the whole world was born from the "liquid earth", that is, from the swamp. The Egyptian goddess Isis hid her son there - the god Horus ... It turns out that this place is not such a dead place?

In the swamp in the open air

It is worth getting to know the swamps better - and they will surprise you with the variety of their colors and smells. Most of all here are mosses. In summer they are emerald green and light green, in dry summer they are white, and in autumn they are yellow, wine red, brown and even purple! And against the background of the moss carpet - light lilac heathers, white caps of wild rosemary, pale pinkish bluebells, red ears of marsh calla, bluish-blue blueberries, inky-purple blueberries, orange cloudberries ... And dark red cranberries! And burgundy cranberries!

On hot summer days, the swamps are filled with the smells of herbs and shrubs, exuding a unique aroma saturated with essential oils not only during flowering, but also in “ordinary life”.

Natural moisture storage

In the bowels of the swamps, 11,500 km3 of fresh water is retained. This is five times more than in all the rivers of the world (2,100 km3), and almost half of the water volume of Lake Baikal (23,000 km3)!

Stagnant swamps regulate the flow of rivers and streams and even feed large rivers. The Dnieper and Volga, for example, originate from swamps. But, contrary to popular belief, the water in the swamps is not at all stagnant. Let's compare: in lakes, water is completely renewed in 17 years, in swamps - every five years!

Large swamps can stop forest fires.

Powerful vacuum cleaner

Every year, one hectare of swamps absorbs 550–1800 kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases 260–700 kg of oxygen. This is 7-15 times more than one hectare of forest or meadow can process.

But that's not all: swamps attract and absorb dust particles, which, as you know, move towards lower temperatures in calm weather (and the temperature above the surface of swamps is always lower than around). One hectare of swamps can "swallow" up to three tons of dust! (By the way, it contains minerals that plants feed on.)

Salvation Islands

Although the unique complexes of the swamps of Russia suffered greatly from human intervention, they still survived. And even in well-developed regions, ecosystems remain the least disturbed. Therefore, they often become a refuge for many Red Book plants and animals that cannot withstand anthropogenic stress.

In 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as a Habitat for Waterfowl was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar; it is now commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. Its goal is to preserve the most valuable territories in this respect: sea bays, lakes, river deltas, swamps. Today, 60 countries participate in the convention, including Russia, where 35 Ramsar sites have been identified. Many of them are of international importance also because they are a haven for migratory birds.

Swamps with history

The first swamps on our planet arose about 400 million years ago. Modern swamps are young, they are "only" 12,000 years old. They are distributed throughout the Earth, their total area is approximately 2682,000 km2. Russia accounts for 73% of this territory, and this is the area of ​​​​five France!

In order for a swamp to form, a combination of a number of conditions is necessary: ​​climate humidity, proximity to groundwater, landscape features, waterproof soil layers.

Swamps can appear on land - due to a constant excess of moisture in the soil and on its surface and weak water flow. It becomes difficult for air to penetrate into the pores of the soil, which is why the dying plant remains are not completely oxidized, and as a result, organic materials are preserved. Sometimes swamps also appear where there is not enough, or even little, moisture, for example, in desert areas. A lake can also become swampy if, due to the abundance of sunlight, it is quickly filled with aquatic plants.

"Pantry of the Sun"

Swamps are also solar energy accumulators. It is compressed there in the form of peat. However, not every swamp produces peat. It does not exist in the swamps of the steppes and deserts: plant remains there quickly decay due to dry air and high temperatures; in maritime swamps, salt water contributes to rapid decomposition, in river backwaters - flow and saturation of water with oxygen.

Peat accumulates in the swamp very slowly. For example, in northwestern Russia, a peat deposit increases its thickness by 0.5–1 mm per year. This is the growth rate of the main peat former - sphagnum moss.

The process of converting dead plant parts into peat is very complex. Modern bogs are in the first, biochemical phase of peat formation, in which a variety of microorganisms take part. At the next, diagenetic phase, peat is compacted under the pressure of the layers lying above, chemical transformations of acids and the formation of the inorganic part of peat also occur.

combustible earth

Pliny the Elder in Natural History calls peat "combustible earth" suitable for heating food.

Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of peat as a mineral: it is a raw material for the pulp and paper industry; coarse, but very durable fabrics are made from it, bitumen and waxes are obtained. Medicines are made from peat. It is both an organic fertilizer and a highly absorbent livestock bedding (peat has a high water holding capacity and an exceptionally high water content: from 88% to 97%).

But thick layers of peat are formed for thousands of years, and are developed in just a few years, and after peat extraction, the swamp almost never recovers. And if a swamp dies, it means that the rivers that originate in it become shallow, soil erosion begins, the whole landscape changes catastrophically ...

Peat bogs help in studying the past of the Earth: even in heavily decomposed peat, the remains of the plants that formed it are found, while pollen and seeds do not change at all. It is known from paleoecological data that many species of plants and animals waited out the times of climate change in swamps. And if we also remember the perfectly preserved "marsh" finds of archaeologists ... Peat bogs are really unique!

Types of swamps

Swamps are lowland, transitional and upland. Lowland swamps are usually located in floodplains of rivers and in places where groundwater comes to the surface of the earth. The soils of such swamps are rich in minerals. There is an abundance of grasses and sedges, and there are almost no sphagnum mosses. There are many lowland swamps in the woodland zone and in the floodplains of large rivers, for example, in Western Siberia.

As peat accumulates in them, lowland bogs gradually, bypassing the transitional stage, turn into upland bogs. Plants that are not very demanding on soil fertility settle in transitional swamps. These are, as a rule, forest swamps, sedge-sphagnum.

There are many raised bogs in zones of strong moisture; they are characterized by very low watering and stagnant waters. The plants living there are separated from the soil by an accumulated layer of peat, so they receive pitiful crumbs of mineral food only with atmospheric precipitation. There are much fewer plant species here than in lowland and transitional swamps, and the main inhabitant is sphagnum moss.

The transformation of a lowland bog into a raised bog occurs first in the middle of the bog massif. And on the outskirts, plants that are characteristic of both lowland and transitional swamps often continue to live and peacefully coexist.

Under certain climatic and geological conditions, for example, with a flat relief and sufficient air humidity, bog massifs are combined at various stages of their development. New micro-landscapes are emerging: swamps, isolated islands, lakes, marsh rivers. And after many thousands of years and new landscapes ...

Swamp researchers call the world of green silence. But one has only to touch them, enter their realm - and this world will be filled with sounds, colors, aromas. And the undiscovered secrets and mysteries of these amazing natural landscapes will awaken a thirst for exploration and discovery.

to the magazine "Man Without Borders"