Fringe wetlands, with their direct aquatic
connections, exchange nutrients with the
open water body, while flood wetlands rely upon the inputs of sediment and, of
course, water during flood events, but in turn can he major providers of organic
detritus into river food webs. The lateral connections influence the movements of
organisms between rivers and their floodplains.
Saltmarshes and mangals (mangrove ecosystems)
are often closely associated
with estuaries, where their formation is intimately connected to the sedimentation
process and to which they supply much of the detritus which contributes to the high
productivity of so many estuaries.
The adaptations of wetland organisms to
environment, are equally applicable to the
littoral zone of lakes; the distinction between a deeply flooded fringe wetland and a
shallow lake is artificial.
