You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast.

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I help you learn a little and sleep a lot.

I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, and today's episode is about swamps and wetlands.

A swamp is a forested wetland.

Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this

environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may

be freshwater, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers

or lakes, where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain

natural water level fluctuations.

Salt water swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines.

Some swamps have hammocks or dry land protrusions,

covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation.

The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps.

In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used

for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskig.

Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers, such as the Amazon,

the Mississippi, and the Congo.

Swamps and marshes are specific types of wetlands that form along water bodies containing rich hydric soils.

Marshes are wetlands, continually or frequently flooded by nearby running bodies of water,

that are dominated by emergent soft-stem vegetation and herbaceous plants.

Swamps are wetlands consisting of saturated soils or standing water

and are dominated by water-tolerant woody vegetation, such as shrubs, bushes, and trees.

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