what abiotic features are found in wetlands?

Question

can anyone name 10 abiotic features found in wetlands
-describe their physical state and site
-topography
-chemical and mineral recources

Answer 1

1. Moisture

2. Drainage

3. Climate

4. Elevation

5. Latitude

6. Soil composition and natural nonliving chemical processes of nutrient recycling and in essence composting.

7. Layers of swamp vegetation buried under sediments in the earth under millions of years of heat and pressure, swamp gas, peat moss, crude oil.

8. Effects on storm surge and hurricanes/typhoons/etc.

9. Effects on land formations.

10. Effects on overall groundwater and surface water distribution in a given area.

Answer 2

Abiotic features = those that are not alive.

Not sure what your Q is asking exactly, because abiotic forces that affect biological systems are all the same, e.g weather, geology, climate, and soil chemistry/physics.

However, wetlands are generally separated from uplands by these three features, two of which are abiotic, so maybe this is what your prof is getting at: hydrology (abiotic), soilchemistry and physics (abiotic), and vegetation (biotic).

Wetlands have saturated soils, sometimes anoxic soils, frequently have organic soils (i.e. high organic to mineral ratio in the soil), and obviously readily available water. Wetlands frequently have flat topography but not always (e.g. seeps on the sides of slopes). Some have slow decomposition due to acidic conditions (e.g. bogs), some relatively rapid. Some are flowing, some still. Some are fed by groundwater, some by overland flow, some a mix. Some are always wet, some seasonaly wet, some ponded, some just saturated to the surface or close to the surface. Some are wet enough, long enough, to emit methane gas. Some are located along rivers, some on the sides of lakes, some connected soley to groundwater, etc.

Hope this helps get you started, at least! Good luck.