31 



Table 4. Continued. 



Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats 



Circular 39 type, and references for examples of typical vegetation 



Classes 



Water 

 Water regimes chemistry 



Type 13— Coastal deep fresh marshes 

 Marsh (Anderson et al. 1968) 

 Estuarine bay marshes, estuarine river marshes 



(Stewart 1962) 

 Fresh and intermediate marshes (Chabreck 1972) 



Type 14— Coastal open fresh water 

 Estuarine bays (Stewart 1962) 



Type 15-Coastal salt flats 

 Panne, slough marsh (Redfield 1972) 

 Marsh pans (Pestrong 1965) 



Type 16— Coastal salt meadows 

 Salt marsh (Redfield 1972; Chapman 1974) 



Type 17— Irregularly flooded salt marshes 

 Salt marsh (Chapman 1974) 

 Saline, brackish, and intermediate marsh (Eleuterius 1972) 



Type 18— Regularly flooded salt marshes 

 Salt marsh (Chapman 1974) 



Type 19— Sounds and bays 



Kelp beds, temperate grass flats (Phillips 1974) 



Tropical marine meadows (Odum 1974) 



Eelgrass beds (Akins and Jefferson 1973; Eleuterius 1973) 



Type 20— Mangrove swamps 

 Mangrove swamps (Walsh 1974) 

 Mangrove swamp systems (Kuenzler 1974) 

 Mangrove (Chapman 1976) 



Golet and Larson system does not recognize the 

 coastal (tidal) fresh wetlands of Circular 39 (Types 12- 

 14) as a separate category, but classifies these areas in 

 the same manner as nontidal wetlands. In addition to 

 devising 24 subclasses, they also created 5 size cate- 

 gories, 6 site types giving a wetland's hydrologic and 

 topographic location; 8 cover types (modified from 

 Stewart and Kantrud 1971) expressing the distri- 

 bution and relative proportions of cover and water; 3 

 vegetative interspersion types; and 6 surrounding 

 habitat types. Since this system is based on the classes 

 of Martin et al. (1953), Table 4 may also be used to 

 compare the Golet and Larson system with the one 

 described here. Although our system does not include 

 size categories and site types, this information will be 

 available from the results of the new inventory of 

 wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. 

 Stewart and Kantrud (1971) devised a new classifi- 

 cation system to better serve the needs of researchers 

 and wetland managers in the glaciated prairies. Their 



system recognizes seven classes of wetlands which are 

 distinguished by the vegetational zone occupying the 

 central or deepest part and covering 5% or more of the 

 wetland basin. The classes thus reflect the wetland's 

 water regime; for example, temporary ponds (Class II) 

 are those where the wet-meadow zone occupies the 

 deepest part of the wetland. Six possible subclasses 

 were created, based on differences in plant species 

 composition that are correlated with variations in 

 average salinity of surface water. The third component 

 of classification in their system is the cover type, 

 which represents differences in the spatial relation of 

 emergent cover to open water or exposed bottom soil. 

 The zones of Stewart and Kantrud's system are 

 readily related to our water regime modifiers (Table 5), 

 and the subclasses are roughly equivalent to our water 

 chemistry modifiers (Fig. 8). 



Wetlands represent only one type of land and the 

 classification of this part separate from the rest is 

 done for practical rather than for ecological reasons 



