Guidance Marshes, bogs and swamps: lack of rejuvenation
Index section Marshes, bogs and swamps: lack of rejuvenation
- The large copper butterfly and the vegetation succession in marshes, bogs and swamps
- Dragonflies and the vegetation succession in marshes, bogs and swamps
- The black tern in bogs and marshes
Introduction
After marshes, bogs and swamps adjacent to rivers have been flooded, the vegetation succession starts again. But in marshes, swamps and bogs where the water is stagnant or sluggish, early stages of terrestrialisation are much less likely to arise naturally. In spite of this, early stages of terrestrialisation used to be found in bogs, in the water-filled depressions left after peat had been extracted. Peat extraction has almost ceased, so no more depressions are being created; furthermore, if the water quality is poor and the water level fluctuates unnaturally, early stages of terrestrialisation rarely occur. The natural fluctuation of water levels is between high in winter and low in summer, but nowadays the levels are often kept constant by regulating the inflow and outflow of water.
The result is that there are few instances of new early stages of terrestrialisation, and any that do exist have to be maintained by intensive management. Animal species associated with early stages of terrestrialisation (rafts of water soldier or reedbeds, for example) are therefore declining.
References
- Weeda, E.J., J.H.J. Schaminée en L. van Duuren (2000). Atlas van plantengemeenschappen in Nederland. Wateren, moerassen en natte heiden. KNNV Uitgeverij. Utrecht.
