29 



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) 



Circular 39 by writing more detailed descriptions and sub- 

 dividing classes on the basis of finer differences in plant 

 life forms. Golet and Larson's classes are roughly equi- 

 valent to Types 1-8 of Circular 39, except that they restrict 

 Type 1 to river floodplains. The 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 categories, 6 site types giving a wetland's 

 hydrologic and topographic location; 8 cover types 

 (modified from Stewart and Kantrud 1971) expressing the 

 distribution 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 com- 

 pare 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 classifica- 

 tion system to better serve the needs of researchers and 

 wetland managers in the glaciated prairies. Their system 

 recognizes seven classes of wetlands which are distin- 

 guished 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 



