ABSTRACT
There is a strong ecological basis for using vegetation to identify and characterize wetlands and delineate their boundaries. The relationship between soil saturation, either continuous or recurrent, and the development of wetland plant communities is well documented and there is a long history of using hydrophytic vegetation to identify wetlands (Hall and Penfound 1939; Sculthorpe 1967; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1987; Tiner 1991; U.S. National Research Council 1995). As has been well established, flooding and soil saturation foster conditions that the majority of plants cannot tolerate. Reed (1997) estimates that nearly 70% of all plant species found in the U.S. or its territories do not occur in wetlands. This fact has led to the use of wetland plants as indicators of the presence of wetlands, and where these communities give way to upland species, the wetland’s boundary.
