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The Destruction of Wetlands The destruction of wetlands is the issue of the modern American ecology. First of all, lets give definition to a term wetland. Wetland means the territories that were saturated or inundated by ground water or surface. Wetlands usually include bogs, swamps, marshes and other similar areas. The major part of wetlands is located Alaska.
Approximately than 103, 000, 000 acres in the lower 48 states remain nowadays and an additional 170 mln acres in Alaska from 215 million acres that existed approximately 200 years ago. It means that more than 50 % of wetlands were destructed. According to chapter Groundwater and Wetlands, the wetlands areas have declined by approximately 55 % since the 1600 's in the U. S.
outside of Alaska. California (91 %), Ohio (90 %), and Iowa (89 %) have experienced the greatest proportional losses of wetland area. According to Audubon. org, wetland losses from the 1950 s to the 1970 s averaged about 458, 000 acres per year. Approximately 85 % of losses were related to agricultural development. 79 % of wetland losses during the period 1985 - 1995 refer to agricultural draining of wetlands. 21 % of destruction refers to urbanization and development processes. In such a way, the major reason of wetlands destruction is related to human activity, such as agricultural (diking, draining, plowing, etc) and other activities such as pollution, mining, non-native invasive plants, development and building projects, road construction, grazing, etc.
It is important to realize that we have to undertake measures to prevent destruction of wetlands. The destruction of wetlands can result in various ecological problems, because it implies less wildlife and fewer birds, the reduction of fisheries and threat of flood, pollution, less groundwater recharge, decreasing soil formation, to mention a few. Destruction of wetlands ruins our ecosystem because wetlands contain more species than any other ecosystem. Wetlands remove various toxins, sediment and nutrients from the flowing water and in such a way, help nature to purify the water supplies. References How many wetlands have already been destroyed?
And why? Retrieved November 7, 2006. web Groundwater and Wetlands. Retrieved November 7, 2006. < web >
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