Exam 1

Question 1

What is a wetland? Include at least two features from the definition accepted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Answer 1

A wetland is an area that is inundated or saturated by water at a duration sufficient to support under normal circumstances a prevalence of vegetation adapted to life in saturated soil conditions.

Question 2

Give two reasons why wetlands are biologically important.

Answer 2

1. Wetlands are important in terms of primary productivity comparable to coral reefs and tropical forests.
2. Wetlands provide a physical filter for erosion as well as chemical filtering.

Question 3

What primary legislation governs modification of wetlands, include the year.

Answer 3

Clean Water Act, 1970s

Question 4

In what cases does that law apply?

Answer 4

Applies for public and private, wetlands with a significant nexus to a waterway, filling and dredging.

Question 5

Which government agency has the jurisdictional authority to determine wetlands?

Answer 5

Corps of Engineers

Question 6

In Rapanos v. United States, the US Supreme court ruled that #5s power to grant permission to modify wetlands was limited. What was the clarification of this ruling regarding wetlands?

Answer 6

Must have a signifiant nexus to a waterway

Question 7

What is an herbarium

Answer 7

A collection of specimens of plants that have been pressed and properly labeled.

Question 8

How might a herbarium be important in wetland deliniation?

Answer 8

Determine species of a plant collected, determine if an area is a wetland

Question 9

Emergent

Answer 9

Rooted in soil, leave and reproductive structures above the water, soil must be hydric

Question 10

Lack stomata

Answer 10

submerged

Question 11

Hydoperiod

Answer 11

Pattern of water levels over time