Frog

Wetland Types: Some Names Used in North America to Describe Wet Places

See Wetlands of Canada (pp. 416-424) for descriptions of most of these; others will be described in Mitsch & Gosselink. Note that classes of wetlands are mixed in this list, so that a given category below, shallow open water for instance, will contain within it many of the other types listed here. The purpose of this list is only to demonstrate the extraordinary range of wetland types.

Backswamp
Basic fen
Basin Swamp
Blanket bog
Bog
Boreal forest
Bottom land hardwood forest
Deep water swamp
Braided channel
Cedar swamp
Channel fen
Channel water
Collapse scar bog/fen
Cypress dome
Cypress swamp
Cypress-tupelo swamp
Depositional zone
Domed bog
Dune fields (freshwater marsh)
Estuarine wetlands
Estuaries
Estuarine high (or low) marsh
Excentric bog
Farm ponds
Farmed wetlands
Feather fen
Fen
Flat swamp
Floating fen/marsh/bog
Floodplain
Floodplain marsh
Floodplain swamp
Freshwater marsh
Freshwater swamp (Southern deepwater swamp)
Gravel bar
High marsh
Inactive delta marsh
Inland freshwater marsh
Kettle marsh
Ladder fen
Lake-edge swamp
Lowland polygon bog/fen
Mangrove swamp
Marsh
Meadow
Mesotrophic bog
Mire
Moor
Mound bog
Muskeg
Net fen
Northern peatland
Palse bog/fen
Patterned fen
Peat mound bog
Peat margin swamp
Peatland
Playa
Polygonal peat plateau bog
Ponds
Potholes (prairie potholes)
Quaking bog
Raised bog
Reedswamp
Root-zone wetland
Salt marsh
Scrub-shrub wetland
Sedge shore fen
Sedge shore marsh
Seep wetland
Seepage track marsh
Sere
Shallow basin marsh
Shallow open water
Shore bog
Shrub shore fen
Slop bog
Slough
Sphagnum bog
Spring swamp
Stream swamp
String bog
Swamps
Tall shrub slope bog
Terminal basin marsh
Tidal creeks
Tidal freshwater marsh
Tidal salt marsh
Veneer bog
Vernal pools
Wastewater wetland
Wet meadows
Wet prairie

[ Previous ] [ Top ] [ Next ]


West Coast Environmental Law web site -- Last modified on 11/12/03.