ABSTRACT

Part of the confusion about what wetlands are can be put down to confusion over what they are called. Because their study falls under no single science, because they occur all over the world in every climate, and because of their strong association with the lives of the earliest humans, the same kind of wetlands in different countries can be known by different names. For example, a biJlabong in Australia is known as a lagoon, 'cut-off' or backswamp elsewhere. North Americans define 'swamps' as wetlands dominated by trees or shrubs, which are flooded through all or most of the growing season. In Britain and Europe, such wetlands are called 'carr' and are characterised by alder and willows. Sometimes they develop in association with peat deposits in valley bottoms and produce a distinctive 'fen-carr' landscape.