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Connecticut Water Trails
Program
Wetlands
Types Of Wetlands
5 Major Wetland
Classifications
Marine
Associated with the open ocean and high-energy
coastline waters(includes coastal wetlands, such as tidal marshes).
Open ocean, continental shelf, including beaches, rocky shores, lagoons,
and shallow coral reefs. Normal marine salinity to hypersaline water
chemistry; minimal influence from rivers or estuaries. Where wave energy
is low, mangroves, mudflats or sabkhas may be present.
Estuarine
Consisting of deepwater tidal habitats and adjacent
tidal wetlands that, at times, have access to the open ocean;
occasionally diluting sea water with freshwater runoff.
With a range of fresh-brackish-marine water chemistry and daily tidal
cycles. Salt and brackish marshes, intertidal mudflats, mangrove swamps,
bays, sounds, and coastal rivers. Drowned coasts, where supply of river
sediment is insufficient to infill estuary basin.
Riverine
Found along rivers and streams.
Freshwater, perennial streams comprised of the deepwater habitat
contained within a channel. This restrictive system excludes floodplains
adjacent to the channel as well as habitats with more than 0.5‰
salinity.
Lacustrine
-Associated with lakes.
Freshwater, perennial streams comprised of the deepwater habitat
contained within a channel. This restrictive system excludes floodplains
adjacent to the channel as well as habitats with more than 0.5‰
salinity.
Palustrine
All non-tidal wetlands that are substantially
covered with emergent vegetation--trees, shrubs, moss, etc. Most bogs,
swamps, floodplains and marshes fall in this system, which also includes
small bodies of open water (< 20 acres), as well as playas, mudflats and
salt pans that may be devoid of vegetation much of the time. Water
chemistry is normally fresh but may range to brackish and saline in
semiarid and arid climates. May be isolated or connected wet areas, including
marshes, swamps, and bogs
In Summary
Each of these systems may interface with each other or with dryland
and deep ocean habitats, so that an environmental continuum
exists across the Earth's surface. Flows of materials and energy
occur within wetlands and between wetlands and other habitats; a
holistic approach is necessary to investigate, understand, develop,
and manage wetlands successfully.
 Various Types Of Wetlands
Types
Of Wetlands In New England
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