Today we were given a task - to write a report about a swamp! I didn’t know what it was, so I started searching on the Internet and asking my dad. There’s even more on the Internet than dad told you!
Here is my report, read it!
What is a swamp?
This is a very moist area of the earth's surface, overgrown with moisture-loving plants. In a swamp, there is usually an accumulation of undecomposed plant debris and the formation of peat.
What kinds of swamps are there in nature?
In order to understand this, you need to understand how swamps arise.
All swamps are divided into lowland and upland. Lowland ones are fed by water from underground, and highland ones are fed by various sediments.
Some swamps arise in the coastal part of large bodies of water - lakes or seas. In those areas of the coast where the soil consists of small clay particles, a type of swamp is gradually formed, which is called a “marsh”. A significant part of the march is covered with water, either permanently or flooded at high tide.
Forest swamps look completely different. Forest waterlogging is a common phenomenon, especially in the north of our country.
Swamps of another type are formed along the valleys and floodplains of rivers. They are associated with groundwater, washing away minerals from the soil into the swamp, so rich vegetation forms in these swamps.
Another type of swamp formation is swamping of lakes.
Animals and plants of swamps
Swamp animals
Multicellular algae form thickets in swamps, providing shelter for a variety of invertebrate worms, mollusks, and crustaceans.
Let's consider various representatives living in the swamps.
Ordinary - not Poisonous snakes. Snakes are found in grassy swamps. They swim well, wriggling their bodies in a zigzag manner and sticking their heads above the water.
Swampy forests are the habitat of the common viper. These are poisonous snakes, body length is less than 1 m. Their bite, although painful, is not fatal if prompt medical attention is provided.
In thickets of reeds, reeds, horsetails and other plants that form a thick 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, egg capsules, and stems of the above-mentioned plants floating on the water, large dolomed spiders run, bordered on the sides of the body with a cream-colored stripe.
Water strider bugs also live here. They glide along the surface of the reservoir, like speed skaters, plowing its surface in different directions.
Not far from the shores, attention is drawn to flocks of black insects with a metallic sheen, which swim quickly, making sharp turns, twirling and spinning. These are predatory whirling bugs. They hunt small insects living in the water or fallen into the water.
Unique among spiders, the silverback water spider makes a unique home underwater in the form of a web bell. When immersed in water it becomes like silver,
In addition to water strider bugs, which live on the surface of the water, fresh water bodies are home to many other species of bugs that stay under water and lead different lifestyles there.
In addition to water bugs and spiders, the inhabitants of fresh water include various bugs and their larvae. The largest of them are the swimmer and the water lover. The larvae of swimming beetles are very aggressive and attack all living things that are close to them. Where many swimming beetle larvae live, they cause significant damage to fisheries.
The larva of another beetle, the water lover, has a different structure and behavior. Its larva has short massive jaws of the chewing type; it is inactive, as it feeds on slowly moving animals: water snails, fry.
Beetles and bedbugs living in water can fly from one body of water to another and thus expand their area of distribution.
This is only a small part of the fauna of the swamps.
Various birds also live here - storks, bitterns. These are very beautiful birds.
Swamp plants
A veritable treasure trove of swamps - her vegetable world. There are trees and shrubs, shrubs and grasses, mosses and lichens, mushrooms and algae. Among all these plants there are berry and medicinal, melliferous and coloring, starch-bearing and tannic, ether-bearing and poisonous, or combining a whole bouquet useful properties. About 300 species of flowering plants are found in swampy forests.
Water lily pure white is a large snow-white water lily flower. It grows in quiet river backwaters and deep swamp hollows. 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 are immersed in 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 at river mouths, thickets in shallow lakes and on saline sea coasts, and phytocenoses in open and forested 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 bog plants are sedges: about 40 species 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 low-lying swamps, swampy meadows, and wet forest edges. Healing properties valerians were known back in Ancient Rome. WITH
The egg capsule is yellow. This is the water lily's constant neighbor.
The egg capsule has long been known in folk medicine. Decoctions of rhizomes and flowers were considered a good cough remedy. Infusions of leaves and stems were used for certain kidney diseases.
Common hellebore. It is an inhabitant of damp meadows, isolated lowland swamps and wet thickets of bushes.
Hellebore is very poisonous! Already 2g of fresh hellebore roots can kill a horse. Livestock usually does not touch hellebore, but young animals 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, cut into narrow lobes. It is found in low-lying swamps, swampy meadows, along the banks of rivers and lakes. The rhizome vekha, pink on the inside, is especially poisonous.
Swamp cranberry. Everyone knows cranberries, but not everyone knows that this is a very capricious plant. Its berries are very healthy, they contain a lot of vitamins.
Swamps in our area
There are a lot of swamps in the Tomsk region, one might even say that it is a complete swamp. And located on its territory Vasyugan swamp- the largest in the world. If it suddenly dries out, the climate on the entire planet will change!
The meaning of swamps
Swamps are a unique gene pool that requires especially careful attitude, since humans are 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 reveals historical facts Earth, knowledge about the planet’s climate, vegetation and animals of past eras is expanding.
Swamps are habitats for rare and endangered animal species. These are the main places where geese, ducks, herons, bitterns, etc. live. Beavers settle on forest lakes with swampy shores. Swamp lakes are home to crucian carp, tench, and pike.
The importance of swamps is great both in the life of our huge planet and of an individual person. And the attitude modern man to the swamps should be modern and noble. When picking berries in swamps, it is necessary to litter it as little as possible.
And you definitely need to remember that you need to be very careful in the swamp, it is very treacherous and deceptive in appearance.
In Russian culture, swamps are not liked; they are avoided, considered dangerous and mysterious. Evil spirits most often live in them, as evidenced by a huge number of proverbs like “sits like a devil in a swamp” or “if there were a swamp, there would be devils.” Mysterious will-o'-the-wisps ("dead man's candles") have given rise to a large number of legends and fairy tales.
There are a huge number of swamps in Russia - they are one of the main elements of the landscape and many of them are impassable. But few people know that fire in a swamp occurs due to the combustion of ordinary swamp gas. Villagers, who tell horror stories about kikimora, go there in the fall in search of berries and herbs, but in general, the swamp is not only a natural filter of fresh water, but also a wonderful place that, if you manage to get there, cannot be forgotten.
1.Swamp Staroselsky moss is located in the Central Forest Reserve in the Tver region, just 330 km from Moscow. Here you can see real taiga, untouched by man since ancient times, walk along ecological trail with a guide and walk along a springy wooden boardwalk that will take you deep into the swamp, which is about 10 thousand years old! In the middle of the swamp, you can climb onto a wooden tower and enjoy complete silence.
2.Sestroretsk swamp is located in the resort area of St. Petersburg. As you know, in 1703 the area of the future St. Petersburg was a complete swamp. The Sestroretsk swamp adjoins the Sestroretsk Razliv, created under Peter I. The Sestra River divides the swamp into two parts. Here, in the swamp, battles took place during the Great Patriotic War, and military dugouts still remain on the towering dunes.
3.By Mshinsky swamp V Leningrad region They constantly conduct tourist excursions, where you can photograph birds and animals, as well as watch them for a long time. The Mshinskoe swamp is a state nature reserve of federal subordination and belongs to territories of international importance. You can come here by train or by car, but you can only get there along hard-to-reach paths.
4. In the Novgorod region, in the Rdeisky Nature Reserve, there is the largest swamp massif in Europe, covering an area of 37 thousand hectares - Rdeyskoe swamp, considered one of the most unique swamp systems in Russia. Not the least important role is played by the Rdeisky Monastery, located in a hard-to-reach part of the swamp, of which little remains today, which, however, does not reduce the number of tourists and pilgrims trying to get to it through the swampy swamp. The reserve here was created in 1994 with the aim of preserving and studying the swamp, rare and endangered species of plants and animals. This place has the Old Russian name "Rdeisko-Polistovsky", associated with the names of two local lakes.
5.Vasyugan swamps are the largest swamps in the world! More than a quarter of the Earth's peat bogs are concentrated here. The Vasyugan swamps cover an area of 53 thousand square kilometers, which is larger in size than the average European country. Swamps lie on the territory of several regions: Tomsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The Vasyugan swamps provide fresh water to the entire Western Siberia; according to scientists, they resist the greenhouse effect and are on the verge environmental disaster due to oil and gas fields, as well as due to the constantly falling stages of launch vehicles from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
6.Tyuguryuk swamp- the largest in Altai and as beautiful as everything in this region. Tyuguryuk swamp is surrounded high mountains up to 2400 meters above sea level, despite the fact that the swamp itself is located on a ridge at a level of 1500 meters. Plants listed in the Red Book grow on it.
7.If you still believe in legends, then you need to visit Great Swamp in the Vologda region. Local residents talk about a “swamp baby” with long gray hair, living in the abandoned village of Tretnitsa on the shore of the swamp and about the remains of a wooden boat with gold at the bottom. At the same time, they themselves actively collect cranberries and blueberries in the swamp.
8. One of the oldest reserves in the Moscow region is "Crane Homeland"- the site of the largest pre-migration gathering of gray cranes in central Russia. The list of birds found in the reserve includes 227 species, of which 54 are listed in the Red Book of the Moscow Region and 14 in the Red Book of Russia. "Crane Homeland" consists of two parts: "Dubna swamp massif" and "Apsarevskoe tract" and in this moment fights against illegal construction on its territory, which could lead to the destruction of a unique reserve.
9. It is believed that the Moscow River flows from Starkovsky swamp near the Smolensk region. A chapel was built at the source of the river in 2004.
10.Eutrophic swamp is located near the city of Kirovsk at the foot of the Khibiny Mountains and near Mount Lysaya. The area of the swamp is almost 10 hectares. The eutrophic swamp is a habitat for, for example, such uncultivable plant species as fireweed and many other plants listed in the Red Book. Therefore, since 1980, logging, tourism and any activity leading to pollution of the natural monument has been prohibited in the swamp.
Today is World Wetlands Day! Therefore, it’s time to find out why swamps are unique, why it is so important not to disturb their ecosystem, and many more interesting facts, and also see beautiful photographs. Facts borrowed from AiF.
1) The largest swamp in Russia and Europe
Photo: etosibir.ru
The largest swamp in Russia and Europe is Vasyugan. It occupies 53 thousand square meters. km between large rivers Siberia - Irtysh and Ob, and is located on the territory of three regions - Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk. The Vasyugan swamp was formed approximately 10 thousand years ago. The process of swamping the territory continues and, perhaps, the land will soon become the largest in the world. In the meantime, the Pantanal in the center is considered the largest swamp on the planet South America, the total area of which is 150 thousand square meters. km.
In total, there are currently 35 swamps in Russia - their total area is 10.7 million hectares. All of them, according to Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 13, 1994 No. 1050, are of international importance and are located on the territory of 21 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
2) Swamps are reservoirs of clean water.
Contrary to popular belief, the water in swamps is not stagnant: if in lakes the water is completely renewed on average in 17 years, then in swamps it takes five years. Swamp moss (sphagnum) is an excellent antiseptic; it prevents the development of even those bacteria that can exist without oxygen. In addition, peat in the thickness of the swamp binds harmful substances into insoluble compounds, thanks to which the swamp system is a natural filter for fresh water. Today, in swamps around the world there is a reserve of 11.5 thousand km³ of fresh water - five times more than in all the rivers of the world.
3) Wetlands reduce Greenhouse effect
Wetlands are climate regulators. The only ecosystem on the planet that counteracts the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and, accordingly, the greenhouse effect is swamps. One hectare of such land is 10 times more effective at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than a forest of the same area. Swamps accumulate peat, which consists mainly of carbon, and swamps, by removing it from the atmosphere and accumulating it, are natural “traps” for this gas. Thus, bogs protect the atmosphere from overheating, reduce the greenhouse effect and cool the planet.
Small bubbles constantly appear on the surface of the swamp. This is swamp gas that accumulates under the silt. It is formed as a result of the rotting of plants, which at the bottom of the swamp do not have access to oxygen. The composition of swamp gas mainly includes methane. The formation of methane is continuous and its presence can be proven if you touch the swamp silt with a stick - gas bubbles immediately float to the surface of the water.
6) Swamps prevent floods
The swamps support water balance. By storing water, they prevent floods and save money on the construction of expensive dams and reservoirs. Unlike mineral soils, peat deposits have greater moisture capacity and water-holding capacity.
7) After the swamps are drained, the rivers disappear
Draining swamps disrupts the nutrition of small rivers flowing from the swamp. As a result of the massive drainage of swamps, many rivers disappeared and dried up. One of the properties of the bog is the collection of rain and melt water. Consuming it gradually during the dry season, the swamps prevent the rivers flowing through them from becoming shallow, and also feed the streams through groundwater.
8) Myth about fertile lands
At the beginning of the 20th century, swamps were considered completely unnecessary and, if possible, they sought to drain them in order to use the vacated lands for arable land, pastures and hayfields. However, it soon became clear that the drained swamps were completely unsuitable for Agriculture without lengthy tillage and application large quantity mineral fertilizers.
9) Swamps are an excellent preservative
The swamp environment slows down the growth of bacteria, which is why bodies of organic origin that drown in the swamp are not destroyed. Over hundreds of millions of years, layers of peat have preserved various strange animals and plants. If there were no swamps, people would hardly know that magnolias and palm trees once upon a time grew in Greenland and Spitsbergen. Over the past 300 years, well-preserved human bodies have been discovered in abandoned peat bogs in Britain and Ireland. Most of these mummies date back to the 1st century. BC e. - IV century n. e.
10) The swamps preserved an Ice Age plant
Thanks to the swamps, the only relic on earth is still preserved Ice Age- butterwort plant (Pinguicula vulgaris). It grows in the Northern Hemisphere in tundra and forest zones on wet rocky slopes and swamps. In Russia it is found in Western Siberia, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.
Zhiryanka leaves prevent rotting, so the plants are widely used to make bactericidal agents that stop the growth of harmful microflora. Shepherds have long applied the plant to the wounds of large cattle to prevent the development of infections.
- excessively moist areas of land with peculiar swamp vegetation and a layer of peat of at least 0.3 m, and therefore are characterized by difficult exchange of gases. Bogs typically contain 87 to 97% water and only 3-13% dry matter (peat).
With less thickness of peat or its absence, excessively moist areas are called wetlands.
Swamps are formed when water bodies become overgrown or when the area becomes waterlogged.
The main way of formation of swamps is swamping, which begins with the appearance of periodic and then constant waterlogging of soils. The climate contributes to this. Excess moisture due to excessive precipitation or weak evaporation, as well as high level groundwater, the nature of the soil is poorly permeable rocks; " permafrost", relief - flat areas with shallow drainage or depressions with slow flow; prolonged floods on rivers, etc. Forests in conditions of excess moisture, which means anaerobic conditions and oxygen starvation, die, which contributes to greater waterlogging due to a reduction in transpiration.
On waterlogged lands, moisture-loving vegetation, adapted to the lack of oxygen and mineral nutrition, settles - moss, etc. Moss turf, which absorbs and retains moisture well, resembling a wet sponge, contributes to even greater waterlogging of the land. So in the future, it is vegetation that plays the leading role in waterlogging. In conditions of lack of oxygen, incomplete decomposition of plant residues occurs, which, accumulating, form peat. Therefore, waterlogging is almost always accompanied by peat accumulation.
The most favorable conditions for peat accumulation exist in forests temperate zone, especially Western Siberia, where within the forest-swamp zone, swampiness sometimes accounts for more than 50% of the territory, the peat thickness is 8-10 m. To the north and south of the forest zone, the thickness of the peat deposit is reduced: to the north due to a decrease in the growth of plant mass in cold climates, to south - due to more intense decomposition of plant residues in a warm climate. In a hot, humid climate, the huge increase in biomass is compensated by the intensive process of decay of dead plants, and there are few swamps, although the evergreen equatorial forests are waterlogged.
The structure of the peat deposits of swamps that arose in place of lakes or dry lands is different. Peatlands formed as a result of swamping of lakes have lake silt - sapropel - under a layer of peat, and when swamping land, the peat lies directly on the mineral soil.
Swamps develop in different climatic conditions, but are especially characteristic of the temperate forest zone and tundra. Their share in Polesie accounts for 28%, in Karelia - about 30%, and in Western Siberia (Vasyugan) - over 50% of the territory. Swampiness is sharply decreasing in steppe and forest-steppe zones, where there is less precipitation and evaporation increases. The total area occupied by swamps is about 2% of the Earth's land area.
Types of swamp
Based on the nature of water supply and vegetation, swamps are divided into three types: lowland, upland and transitional.
Lowland marshes are formed on the site of former lakes, in river valleys and in depressions that are constantly or temporarily flooded with water. They feed mainly on groundwater rich in mineral salts. The vegetation cover is dominated by green mosses, various sedges and grasses. In older swamps, birch, alder, and willow appear. These swamps are characterized by weak peat - the thickness of the peat does not exceed 1 — 1 .5 m.
Raised bogs formed on flat watersheds, fed mainly by precipitation, vegetation is characterized by limited species composition- sphagnum mosses, cotton grass, wild rosemary, cranberry, heather, and woody ones - pine, birch, less often cedar and larch. The trees are severely depressed and stunted. Sphagnum moss grows better in the middle of the swamp; on the outskirts it is suppressed by mineralized waters. Therefore, raised bogs are somewhat convex, their middle rises 3-4 m. The peat layer reaches 6-10 m or more.
Transitional swamps, or mixed represent a transitional stage between lowland and upland. In lowland swamps, plant residues accumulate and the surface of the swamp rises. As a result, groundwater, rich in salts, ceases to nourish the swamp. Herbaceous vegetation dies off and is replaced by mosses.
Thus, lowland swamps turn into raised swamps, and the latter are then covered with bushes or meadow vegetation, turning into dry meadows. Therefore, moss or grass swamps in their pure form are rarely found in nature.
The swamps have a large economic importance. Thus, peat bogs are a source of fuel for industry. The first thermal power plant in the world operating on peat was built in Russia in 1911 (in the city of Elektrougli).
Peat from lowland bogs is a good organic fertilizer. Therefore, partially low-lying swamps are drained and turned into fertile land. But not all swamps need to be drained; some of them must be preserved so as not to disrupt the relationships that have developed in nature.
Swamps moisten the air in the area, are home to valuable plant species (cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries) and habitats for many species of animals, especially birds, and are natural reservoirs of water that feed rivers.
Each of the swamps has its own past, its own history. Among them there are both very old, with thousands of years of existence, and young ones, barely born. ? The swamps themselves tell about their past. Scientists have learned to read this interesting page life of nature, and now it is available to everyone.
Swamp vegetation
Studying swamp vegetation By studying its peat layers, bog scientists find out the changes that occur in the bog during its development, as well as the reasons for these changes, determine the possibilities for the economic use of bogs and other issues. But a swamp is, first of all, a biological community, (more details: ), that is, a natural formation in which certain, often very complex life connections have arisen between the organisms inhabiting it.Study of swamp formation
For study of swamp formation it is necessary to know how various relationships arise between the plants that inhabit it, how the life of some species of these plants affects the lives of others, how the connections between them change and how this, in turn, affects future fate swamps, that is, how a swamp gradually changes and is finally replaced by another community. Based on this study, it can be established general patterns in the development and disappearance of swamps over time, to determine the laws of their life. Swamps arise, develop, disappear. They can appear in the place of a meadow, in the place of cleared forests, in places where excess moisture is formed; many swamps formed in place of lakes. On European territory, swamps began to appear when the glaciation periods changed. climatic conditions, close to modern ones. This happened about 10,000-12,000 years ago. The glacier retreated to the north and northwest, leaving behind vast lowlands, drainless depressions that filled with water and formed numerous lakes. Swamps originated in these places. They were created, of course, not immediately, but as they settled throughout the territory, which was freed from the glacier, plants and animals. In the process of this settlement, relationships arose between organisms, characterized as biological communities (biocenoses); These include swamps. We will look at the life of swamp plants as a plant community, without touching on swamp animals. The simplest way of education swamps- on the spot lakes.
Turning a lake into a swamp. A lake, like a swamp, is not only a body of water, but also a biological community in which continuous changes occur: the relationships between the organisms inhabiting it change, and therefore the lake itself changes. The wind brings a lot of light seeds, and plants that were not here before appear along the shores of the lake and in the water itself. Many seeds of aquatic marsh plants are brought on their legs and feathers by waterfowl - ducks, waders and others. It happens that birds bring them in their stomachs: there are seeds that do not lose their viability even after they pass through the intestines. Many plants and their seeds are brought melt water. Therefore, the number of migrating plants increases from year to year. At first it may seem that the settlement of the lake is random and random. But that's not true. Each plant established here is adapted to life in a humid environment, but to varying degrees and in different ways: some develop on a damp bank, others in shallow water, near the shore, and others at great depths. If this or that plant has settled in conditions that are not entirely typical for it, for example, a deep-sea plant in shallow water, it will gradually be pushed aside by shallow-water plants to deeper places. As a result, each species will occupy the areas most favorable for its existence. It is known that a plant, once in a slightly different living environment, can change. However, this change occurs much more slowly than the process of overgrowing the lake, so it is usually difficult to directly observe it under natural conditions. Only by studying the life of living nature over a long period of time can one establish that species change over time. The process of overgrowing lakes
What plants are directly involved in process of lake overgrowing? There are many of them, but we will focus only on some of the most common ones in central Europe.- On the very edge of the sloping shore of the lake, near the water, various sedges with narrow, hard leaves. Some of them even move from the shore into shallow water. The appearance of sedges indicates the presence of a large amount of moisture in the soil.
- From a fluffy seed, perhaps brought from somewhere far away, tall thickets grew and grew quite quickly cattail- a coastal plant with long narrow leaves and inflorescences consisting of a huge number of seeds surrounded by fluff. These seeds are carried far through the air by the wind, and one can often observe some random hole filled with water, overgrown with cattails along the edges, although there are no cattail thickets anywhere nearby. Cattail grows thanks to powerful perennial rhizomes that produce new shoots year after year.
- Right there, near the shore, there are graceful yellow killer whales(irises). Some of their species are grown in flower beds as ornamental plants for the beauty of their flowers.
- Here you can also see dark green thickets bog horsetail, so different from our other green plants.
- They settled not far from them arrow shooters with original, arrow-like surface and long belt-like underwater leaves: interesting example changes in leaf shape of a plant depending on the conditions of their formation - in the air and in water. All these and similar plants huddle close to the shore, without moving to the deeper parts of the lake.
- makes noise cane;
- sway and rustle even from weak air movement, sensitive reeds;
- large round leaves of yellow water lily and white water lily, commonly called white, float water lily;
- at even greater depths, underwater thickets of various pondweed with translucent olive green leaves. These are already plants almost completely immersed in water. Of the several types of pondweed we encounter, only one - the floating pondweed - has leaves on the surface of the reservoir, while the rest have only inflorescences showing from the water;
- and various multicellular algae, related to lower, spore plants.
Splavina
Very great importance in the process of waterlogging, lakes have: and plants such as medicinal watch, cinquefoil, whitewing and others. The floating perennial rhizomes of these plants, intertwining with each other, form something like a flooring - rafting. Gradually growing every year, it creeps more and more onto the lake, slowly reducing the water surface. Wind-blown leaves, dust, etc. fall on the float. Over time, it turns into a riptide that can withstand the weight of animals and humans. Coastal sedges and other coastal grasses move onto it, and later shrubs and even trees (talnik,). The time comes when the lake is completely overgrown from above, but under a thin, shifting cover they can remain for a long time. great depths. In some places, only small windows remain from the water mirror, but over time they also disappear and only beautiful bright green areas remain - Charus.Such a charusa looks cheerful from a distance, spreading widely and extensively among reddish pines and dark coniferous spruce trees. Level, smooth, it is densely overgrown with lush greenery and dotted with turquoise forget-me-nots. The meadow beckons the traveler... But the emerald charusa is just a thin cover of grass spread over the surface of the lake... (Melnikov-Pechersky, “In the Forests”).
Formation of a swamp as a result of the appearance of mosses
The most important stage formation of a swamp - the appearance of mosses. These are primarily mosses from the genus hypnum, which are usually called green mosses.
Moss formation. As the bog develops, hypnum and other mosses gradually replace many plants. But even during the period when mosses are the predominant plants, other plants also play a significant role. In some places, the swamp from a distance appears to be covered with snow from a large amount cotton grass- its snow-white plumes sometimes cover large areas. The panicles are swaying here and there reed grass.
Lowland marshes
Where once there was a watery shore of the lake, willow bushes, gnarled birches, and black alder are already growing. Their roots suffer from excess moisture and lack of oxygen in the soil, so over time these woody plants must die off, but they still provide material for peat formation and affect the quality of peat.
Lowland swamp. Cotton grass, reed grass and other similar plants sometimes produce large accumulations of organic matter, so there are also types of peat such as cotton grass, reed grass etc. But the main plant during this period of development of the swamp is still the brilliantly green hypnumums. Swamps, in which the remains of reeds, sedges, and mosses, including hypnoids, predominate, are called lowland swamps. raised bog
Hypnum, changing the living conditions in the swamp, prepares the arrival of a new peat-forming plant - white sphagnum peat moss. Sphagnum - moss raised bog.
High bog moss. Hypnum develops mainly in water containing a sufficient amount of mineral salts. Sphagnum - in water containing almost no salts. Does not tolerate the presence of lime in water. Sphagnum definitely needs soft water, while hypnum is content with hard water. The most best water for sphagnum - rain. In addition, sphagnum requires a lot of water. Sphagnum is white moss. This name of the moss is explained by its cellular structure. It contains two kinds of cells. Small green cells - with chlorophyll and large, empty ones, communicating with each other, not containing chlorophyll and giving the moss a grayish tint. It is in them that water accumulates. If you air-dry sphagnum moss and then put it in a glass of water, it will absorb about twenty times its own weight. Other mosses are drowned out by white moss; they find themselves in worse conditions due to a lack of mineral nutrition. Due to plant change lowland peat bog goes into riding. In a raised bog, under favorable conditions of humidity and temperature, cuckoo flax can exist for a very long time, spreading in breadth and growing upward. The peat formed in such a bog is of very high quality - it has a high calorific value and contains significantly less ash than the peat of lowland bogs. Waterlogging of forests and meadows
As the sphagnum bog grows, it can cause swamping of forests, meadows and turning them into a swamp.
Forest swamping. Have you probably been to a spruce forest - a green moss forest (more details:)? It is called so because the ground under the canopy of this forest is completely covered with green moss. The foot sinks into a lush layer of cuckoo flax and hypnums. What is the condition of the trees in such a damp forest? In some places they have already stopped growing in height: the roots of the tree do not have enough air. You can see from the stumps how little the tree has grown in thickness - the outer rings of the wood are barely noticeable. Even young, unshaded trees are depressed. Such a forest of spruce trees, decorated with long tufts of bearded lichen, could exist for a long time if the process of waterlogging was stopped. But this process usually continues and even intensifies. Look: among the shiny green hypnums and cuckoo flax, sphagnum has already settled here and there. This means that the conditions for root nutrition of trees will deteriorate even more as white mosses grow. Ultimately, they will destroy both green mosses and trees. The forest will gradually give way to open swamp. Only in the layer of formed peat can the stumps and roots of what once grew here be preserved. spruce forest. Meadows also become swamped easily. One of the founders of scientific soil science, V.R. Williams, wrote that a meadow can turn into a swamp through the activity of meadow plants. Some meadow grasses with dense root systems compact the turf year after year. More and more moisture will be retained in these places, and the meadow will become damp. Now sedges and small species of green mosses are settling here. This further increases waterlogging, and over time, if measures are not taken to drain the meadow, it will turn into a new plant community - a moss swamp. The meadow grasses will disappear, replaced by swamp plants, and, finally, the entire community will be replaced by another. Swamp - biological community
The swamp is associated with the idea of immobility, stagnation. But it only seems, in fact biological community - swamp- lives his constantly changing life. If sufficient climate humidity remains, the swamp grows in width, covering adjacent areas and swamping forests and meadows. With a lack of moisture, it will gradually begin to decrease and may disappear completely. The sphagnum bog grows not only laterally, but also in height. The conditions for the growth of white moss in a large swamp in its central part and along the edges are not the same. The growth of sphagnum in the central part of the bog, which is more favorable for life, can proceed faster. A certain bulge is formed, the height of which sometimes reaches 3-8 meters or more. In this case, it becomes clearly visible to the eye. It happens that a swamp, growing, encounters a slight elevation, but the process of swamping does not always stop here. Under favorable moisture conditions, the swamp can slowly spread up the slope. It is interesting to trace the past of the swamp by the composition of the peat massif, which was formed over a long period of time - sometimes several millennia. In the depths of the peat layer there is almost no rotting, since there are no favorable conditions for the life of putrefactive bacteria. Therefore, in peat they sometimes find undecomposed corpses of animals that once died in the swamp. Spores and pollen from flowering plants are very well preserved in peat. Under a microscope, you can determine what plant species they belong to, and thus find out what plants existed in a given area in the distant past. This is why a swamp is a good archive of the past. Often in peat layers a so-called boundary layer is found from the remains of tree stumps and roots. The presence of such a layer in many old peat bogs indicates that this is not a random phenomenon. There were common reasons, as a result of which the development of the peat bog was delayed, the bog dried out and forests grew in its place. This could have happened due to some climate change towards greater dryness. But then conditions changed again, and the swamp began to grow again, capturing forested areas, especially in low places. The forest was dying. The forest giants fell, rotting. Gradually their trunks were destroyed. Only roots and stumps hidden by moss were preserved in the resulting layers of peat. Of course, the duration of such a process is determined by many centuries. Based on these data, it was established, for example, that about 5000 years ago, warming and an increase in climate dryness began in the European part. Then, after about two and a half thousand years, the climate again became more humid and cooler and gradually approached the modern one. The changes that occurred as a result of this warming led to the replacement of some communities by others and left a trace in the form of a boundary layer in the old swamp. Thus, the study of old peat bogs provides valuable material about natural conditions our country in times distant from us.Peat bog plants and their living conditions
It is known that waterlogging leads to the death of tree populations. However, not all trees die equally quickly. Birch and alder die and disappear before others. The most tenacious tree in a moss swamp is. It has a very wide range of adaptability to various living conditions: it grows well on sand, is found on almost bare rocks, where it penetrates with its roots into cracks in hard rocks and finds the necessary conditions for life, and also grows in peat bogs.
Swamp pine. Of course, in different conditions In life, pine looks different outwardly. These changes are especially significant in forms growing in swamps. Who hasn't seen the stunted swamp pines-dwarfs? The height of the tree is only 3-4 meters, the thickness of the trunk is 4-5 centimeters, but the pine has already reached its age limit. Cut such a pine tree at the base and try to determine its age by the annual rings of the wood. Without a strong magnifying glass this is unlikely to be possible - the layers are so frequent! It turns out that the tree is 50-80 years old or more. In the northern regions, swamp pines are even smaller - they look more like shrubs than trees. Compare such a dwarf with a pine tree grown in a pine forest. The roots of swamp pine are not at all similar to the root system of bog pine. In the latter, the root goes far into the depths, the tree holds firmly to the ground. If a storm comes, it will break the tree rather than uproot it. In swamp pine, the roots do not go deep, but to the sides, like spruce: here in the surface layers of the soil there is more air for the roots to breathe than in the depths of peat deposits. As the peat layer grows, the living conditions of the plant gradually worsen. Pines growing in the swamp rarely bear fruit, although there is a lot of light and the distance between the trees is large. However, occasionally they produce cones with seeds. We tried to sow the seeds of such a pine under normal conditions. Slender, tall pines developed from them. Consequently, the living conditions in the swamp change the pine tree, but its hereditary nature turns out to be very constant and changes very slowly. Still, foresters believe that it is not indifferent from which pine forests take seeds for new plantings so that the trees grown are taller and straighter. And therefore, some forestry specialists distinguish certain forms of swamp pines, in which such characteristics as short stature, structural features of the crown, trunk, cones, are described as stable for this form, that is, they are already considered as the hereditary nature of these plants, which arose under the influence of conditions life in the swamp for many generations. Pine is very widespread - it is a common tree in a wide variety of landscapes. However, the number of pine species is very small: there are only about ten of them. It can be assumed that the reason for the relatively small number of pine species is that genus pine formed a very long time ago, back in the Middle (Mesozoic) era. Pine, having gone through a very long path of existence in conditions of significant physical changes, acquired that vitality and flexibility of adaptation that characterizes modern pine. Adaptability to various living conditions has become a characteristic of pine, that is, it constitutes its hereditary nature. This helped it not only survive to this day, but also occupy vast areas. Swamp woody shrubs
Pine can live in a swamp due to its great adaptability to life in various conditions, but there are plants that are closely tied to the swamp and cannot exist outside it.
Woody shrubs - cranberry. This primarily includes some small woody shrubs, found, except in the north, almost exclusively in peat bogs, less often in swampy forests. - These are cassandra and podbel - evergreen shrubs with dense leaves covered with a waxy coating, preserved for the winter;
- wild rosemary with a strong, intoxicating odor and with leaves as dense as those of the wild rosemary, curled at the edges and covered with fluff at the bottom;
- in the swamp, blueberries (gonobobel) grow with edible bluish berries covered with a bluish coating, and cranberries creeping along the surface of the swamp;
- in the drier places of the forest adjacent to the swamp, lingonberries and blueberries grow, as well as heather with very small leaves and beautiful clusters of small purple flowers.
The struggle of marsh plants for moisture
marsh plants have some features that help them in their struggle for moisture. But swamps are precisely rich in moisture! This is true, but nevertheless, the plants of the peat bog suffer greatly precisely because of its lack. The fact is that the water of the swamps is very cold throughout the summer and therefore does not penetrate well into the roots of the plant and is used by it. Even if you put your hand under the moss cover on a hot summer day, it will seem to you that you have lowered your hand into spring water. This is the temperature feature of peat bogs. This is explained by the fact that the moss cover interferes with the heating of the underlying layers. Swamp plants can be compared to swimmers who find themselves in the open sea with an insignificant supply of fresh water: there is water all around, but there is nothing to quench their thirst; we have to use existing supplies very sparingly. Nature often solves the same biological task - to use moisture economically, but under different conditions - using the same means: natural selection goes in the same direction in both cases. So, heather, for example, is found in very dry places and in swamps.
Marsh heather. Both here and here this plant is a dry-lover, that is, it can exist with a very small amount of moisture (in a dry place there is little water, in a swamp it is inaccessible to the plant due to its low temperature). In heather, therefore, regardless of whether it grows on in a peat bog or in the sand, the signs of dry grass are very clearly expressed: there are very few stomata through which moisture evaporates, and they are located on the inner, lower surface of sometimes almost rolled up leaves, often protected by fluff - this also reduces evaporation, ( more details: ). Although heather has a lot of leaves (up to 60,000-70,000), they are extremely small. Finally, this low-growing plant grows, as a rule, not alone, but in large clusters, which also reduces the release of moisture. The struggle of marsh plants for nitrogen
Another very important issue for the life of a peat bog plant is fight for nitrogen. As you know, nitrogen is necessary for the plant to form proteins. It enters the plant through the root in the form of aqueous solutions of nitrogen compounds. However, in the soil environment of a moss swamp, nitrogen compounds are negligibly small: due to the absence of decay microbes, the decomposition of organic matter here is either very slow or stops completely. It would seem that swamp plants must constantly suffer from a lack of nitrogen. But that's not true. Swamps help supply nitrogen to some plants. simple mushrooms. They exist in the form of a thin thread that weaves around the roots of heathers and even penetrates into the root tissue. In the process of life activity, fungi extract nitrogen compounds from the organic matter of the soil environment in such quantities that the plant, using only part of them, fully satisfies its needs for nitrogen. But the green plant does not remain in debt: mushrooms use organic substances created by the plant during the process of photosynthesis. Thus, peat bog plants provide themselves with nitrogen, being in symbiosis with fungi.Nitrogen nutrition of sundews
But in a peat bog, plants have developed other ways of obtaining nitrogen. It’s very interesting, for example, what happens nitrogen nutrition in a small herbaceous plant of swamps - sundews. Leaves, as you know, are organs of air supply with carbon dioxide. In sundews, along with this function, they also perform another one - they produce nitrogen.
Sundew plant. The sundew catches living insects with leaves and feeds on the protein they contain. This plant is sometimes called a predator, not without reason. It's interesting to watch how this feeding occurs. Sundew is a herbaceous plant with a rosette of leaves. It develops a stalk with inconspicuous, small, white flowers in the center of the rosette. Each leaf looks like a flat spoon, along the edges of which there are hair-like outgrowths with shiny thickenings at the ends, reminiscent of dew drops. Hence its name - sundew. Each sundew leaf is a kind of insect trap. Now a small midge has landed on a leaf and stuck to it: it is all covered with a sticky liquid secreted by the cells. The midge struggles with all its might, trying to free itself, but it rarely succeeds: the hairs surrounding the leaf blade bend towards the midge and, with their thickenings, press it against the leaf. Now the midge cannot escape. She will die. Meanwhile, the cells of the sundew leaf that caught the midge secrete a liquid that acts like the digestive juices of animals - the proteins of the midge’s body dissolve in this liquid, and then are absorbed by the cells and go to feed the plant. When the insect is “eaten”, the hairs straighten and the trap is again ready for action. Such adaptations to plants feeding on insects are not isolated. Moreover, the plants that have them are distant in origin. It tingles that homogeneous adaptations, even the most complex ones, can arise in different organisms in the presence of some similar developmental conditions. Growth of marsh plants in height
The third feature of life plants in peat bogs follows from its properties under favorable conditions year after year grow in height. The growth of the bog is determined by the growth of sphagnum, therefore a direct relationship is established between sphagnum and other plants: the latter are constantly under threat of being buried under a growing layer of peat. To avoid this fate, plants must have some kind of defense mechanism. And indeed, as a result of natural selection, they acquired such adaptations. Sundew, for example, every spring forms a rosette of leaves at the surface level of a moss swamp. If you carefully excavate the remains of sundews from previous years hidden in the moss cover, you can even establish how quickly the swamp has grown over the past few years (traces of rosettes remaining in the moss layer sometimes persist for quite a long time). Cranberries also constantly climb to the surface of the swamp, forming adventitious roots on the stem. Moss grows, and cranberries grow at the same speed, remaining at the same time a creeping dwarf. Many heathers, as the peat grows, also produce new roots on the swampy part of the stems. Even larch in a peat bog constantly moves away from waterlogging, giving new adventitious roots. Therefore, in a swamp it is more durable than pine, which does not have this property. Plants living in peat bogs have many other adaptations.Life under the green cover of a peat bog
Talking about peat bog, we touched only on its surface layer, inhabited by green plants. A peat bog is often a very powerful mass, reaching a depth of ten meters or more. And here, in this thickness, flows Difficult life bacteria and fungi. If in the process of photosynthesis of a green plant organic matter is formed - preserved by the Sun, then the process of peat formation can be called preservation of organic matter. It is known that organic matter is fragile - it is easily destroyed, and its destroyers are primarily various microorganisms - bacteria and fungi. The significance of the activity of peat microbes involved in the process of peat formation lies in the fact that they prevent the development of microbes that destroy organic matter. Germs against germs! What is this interesting process? First of all, the microbes that create peat secrete substances in the form of various organic acids, which are harmful to microbes that destroy organic matter. In addition, there is almost no free oxygen in the peat layer, and microbes that destroy organic matter need it. On the contrary, microbes that delay the decomposition of organic matter live in the absence of free oxygen. But, despite conservation, the organic matter of the bog will not remain constant: under the influence of various peat microorganisms it changes. By examining the thickness of peat in a swamp, it is easy to establish that the physical and Chemical properties peat mass different ages are different. The closer the peat layer is to the surface, the younger it is usually and therefore more loose. In it, with a simple eye, we can distinguish the parts of the plants from which it was formed. Sometimes it is clear what plant species produced these remains. However, the older the layer, the more difficult this determination will be. In the deep layers, only with the help of a microscope can one detect some plant remains, such as pollen and spores.Peat
Older peat often represents an earthy mass of different shades - from dark brown to almost black.
Peat in the swamp. It is viscous, you can no longer distinguish individual particles in it. If we take a handful of peat from the upper loose layers and squeeze it hard, it will give up some water. But if you do the same with old, deep peat, there will be no water. By drying the loose, superficial, young peat, we remove a significant part of the water from it, but if we wet this peat again, it will absorb water and take on its previous appearance. If you dry the peat of the old layers and then moisten it with water, you will no longer get peat of the same type. This means that as peat decomposes more and more, its physical properties also change. Chemical composition of peat
Changes with depth chemical composition of peat. The reason for these changes may be the variety of materials from which the peat is formed, but there are also general reasons for its change chemical composition. They are explained primarily by dietary habits different types peat microbes, resulting in an increase in the percentage of carbon in peat. The older the peat, the more carbon it contains. Consequently, the calorific value of the deep layers of peat will be higher than the more superficial ones. This is in the most general outline picture of the peat formation process.We found out that there is enough peat in this swamp to operate a large factory for a hundred years. These are the riches hidden in our swamps! M. PrishvinA peat bog is a colossal storehouse of energy. It is estimated that total The carbon stored in peat bogs amounts to about 400 billion tons around the globe!