Tropical Freshwater Swamps (Mineral Soils)

Abstract

Freshwater swamps on mineral soils are frequently or (almost) continuously inundated wetlands characterized by emergent vegetation. In the tropics these areas usually occur in vast flat floodplains and vary from the Papyrus and grassland swamps of the Sudd along the Nile River in South Sudan; to the grasslands of the Kafue flats in Zambia, savanna-like wetlands of southern New Guinea; backwater billabongs and feather and fan palm swamps of northern Australia, wet palm savannas of South America; tall freshwater swamp forests in coastal plains and along major rivers in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and Amazonia; and complexes of woodland, forest, and herbaceous vegetation of the Pantanal, in South America. Most are floodplain swamps maintained by incoming floodwaters, but some are fed by groundwater.