Louisiana's coastal marshes are tremendously valuable for their commercial fish and shellfish harvest. In the Southeast, for example, nearly all the commercial catch and over half of the recreational harvest are fish and shellfish that depend on the estuary-coastal wetland system. Many of the nation's fishing and shellfishing industries harvest wetland-dependent species. Some medicines are derived from wetland soils and plants. We use a wealth of natural products from wetlands, including fish and shellfish, blueberries, cranberries, timber and wild rice. Protecting wetlands can protect our safety and welfare. These include natural water quality improvement, flood protection, shoreline erosion control, opportunities for recreation and aesthetic appreciation and natural products for our use at no cost. Thus wetlands help to moderate global climate conditions.įar from being useless, disease-ridden places, wetlands provide values that no other ecosystem can. Wetlands store carbon within their plant communities and soil instead of releasing it to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. S cientists now know that atmospheric maintenance may be an additional wetlands function. Wetlands' microbes, plants and wildlife are part of global cycles for water, nitrogen and sulfur. Many species of birds and mammals rely on wetlands for food, water and shelter, especially during migration and breeding. The combination of shallow water, high levels of nutrients and primary productivity is ideal for the development of organisms that form the base of the food web and feed many species of fish, amphibians, shellfish and insects. ![]() Wetlands play an integral role in the ecology of the watershed. A watershed is a geographic area in which water, sediments and dissolved materials drain from higher elevations to a common low-lying outlet or basin a point on a larger stream, lake, underlying aquifer or estuary. ![]() The functions of a wetland and the values of these functions to humans depend on a complex set of relationships between the wetland and the other ecosystems in the watershed. Dead plant leaves and stems break down in the water to form small particles of organic material called "detritus." This enriched material feeds many small aquatic insects, shellfish and small fish that are food for larger predatory fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. These animals use wetlands for part of or all of their life-cycle. Wetlands can be thought of as "biological supermarkets." They provide great volumes of food that attract many animal species. This is why wetlands in Texas, North Carolina and Alaska differ from one another. ![]() The complex, dynamic relationships among the organisms inhabiting the wetland environment are called food webs. ![]() Climate, landscape shape (topology), geology and the movement and abundance of water help to determine the plants and animals that inhabit each wetland. An immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals can be part of a wetland ecosystem. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. See the Wetland Factsheet Series for more information about wetlands. These valuable functions are the result of the unique natural characteristics of wetlands. Some of these services, or functions, include protecting and improving water quality, providing fish and wildlife habitats, storing floodwaters and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods. Wetlands are important features in the landscape that provide numerous beneficial services for people and for fish and wildlife.
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