Answering the following questions will help you to prepare for the Wetlands final.  The final will emphasize topics covered in class since the last exam (mammals, swamps, riparian forest, peatlands, and human interactions). It may have more questions on it than usual since we have more time and you are likely to do better if one or two tough questions count for less, but the exam will have equal weight with the others.

A. MAMMALS
1.  How do fox, moose, deer, bear, raccoons, manatees and otters use wetlands?
2.  Why are female moose more common than male moose in wetlands?
3.  How does the swamp rabbit escape predators?  How about the salt marsh mouse?
4.  What does a muskrat look like?  What adaptations does it have for swimming?  What is its house like and what does it eat?  How does it cope with high predation pressure?  What does it do during drought?  During winter?
4.  What is an "eat-out"?  How do managers use muskrats to improve waterfowl habitat?
5.  Are muskrats important economically?  Are they a nuisance to humans in any way?
6.  What is a nutria?  Where are they found in the US and how did they get there?  How are their life styles similar and different from those of muskrats?
7.  How does a beaver differ in appearance from a muskrat or a nutria?  What adaptations does this animal have for swimming and diving, and for avoiding predators?  What does it eat?  Why does it build dams and lodges?  How does its lodge differ from that of the muskrat? Is its lifestyle during winter different from that of the muskrat?
8.  What problems do beavers present for humans?  How are these problems resolved?
9.  How do beavers change the landscape?  What happens to the habitat they create when they abandon the site?  (Why do they move?)

B.  MANGROVE SWAMPS
1.  What is a mangrove swamp? What local conditions are required for their formation?
2. How are these swamps distributed globally, and in the U.S.? Why haven't mangroves replaced salt marshes in temperate and polar regions?
3.  How do mangroves cope with anoxic sediments, salt, unstable substrate and hurricanes?
4.  Why do some mangroves have viviparous propagules?  What purpose(s) do they serve?
5.  How can red, black and white mangroves be distinguished from one another?  How are their habitats different?
6.  Where in a swamp are buttonwood trees (button mangrove) found?
7.  What are fringe, riverine, basin, and dwarf mangroves?  Where are they found? How do they differ in level of productivity?
8.  To what extent are mangrove leaves consumed while alive?  How important are detrital food chains in mangrove swamps?  How much leaf litter is exported offshore?
9.  How important are mangrove swamps as habitat for fish?  For birds?  For other vertebrates?
10.  What kinds of invertebrates are found in mangrove swamps?
11.  What values do humans assign to mangroves?
12.  What are the principal threats to mangrove habitat?  How is reduced freshwater runoff from the Everglades influencing mangroves in southern Florida?  How might mangroves respond to global warming and sea level rise?

C.  INLAND SWAMPS
1.  What kind of trees/shrubs are common in northeastern swamps?  In the swamps of mid-Atlantic states?
2.  We talked mostly about cypress and tupelo swamps.  In what part of the country are these swamps found?
3.  How are the four trees common to deep water swamps (bald and pond cypress, water and black tupelo) distinguished from one another?  
4.  Bald cypress and water tupelo are often found together, while pond cypress and black tupelo make another pair.  What conditions favor one pair over the other?
5.  Cypress is a highly valuable timber species.  Why?  How has logging affected cypress swamps?
6.  What is the function of cypress and tupelo knees?
7.  Why do swamp trees buttress?
8.  Cypress trees are drought dependent?  Explain.
9.  What are some plants other than trees that might be found in a deep water swamp?
10.  What is a cypress dome?  Why is the vegetation in the dome taller at the center?
11.  Under what conditions are dwarf cypress swamps formed?  How do they differ from cypress domes?
12.  Lake-edge and alluvial river swamps are much more productive systems than cypress domes and dwarf cypress swamps.  Why?
13.  Cypress strands are also more productive.  What is a strand?
14.  How important is detritivory (versus herbivory) in swamps?
15.  How have the fishes in swamps adapted to frequently low oxygen concentrations?
16.  What threats exist for swamps?

D. RIPARIAN FOREST
1.  What is a riparian forest?  How does it differ from a swamp?  From an upland forest?
2.  Where are they found?
3. Why are they normally dominated by trees?  Trees tend to occur in zones, why?  What are a few common species?
4.  Riparian forests are particularly important for wildlife in arid western regions of our country.  Why?
5.  In general, riparian forests are more productive than adjacent upland forest.  Why?
6.  Ecologists say that species diversity is high in riparian systems because they are ecotones.  What does this mean?
7.  Riparian forests are particularly vulnerable to development, and to not being granted wetlands protection.  Why is this the case?
8.  Riparian forests make great farmland when trees are removed, and are also great for siviculture.  Why?
9.  Why are rivers and lakes better off having riparian zones than going without?
10.  What are some current issues related to these systems?

E. PEATLANDS
1.  What is the difference between a rich fen, a poor fen, and a bog?  What kind of vegetation does each have?
2.  What conditions cause peat to accumulate?
3.  How is it that bogs can rise up in domes on the horizion, or creep as a blanket uphill?  What sort of climate is necessary for these phenomena to occur?
4.  Why are bogs acidic?
5.  Why are they nutrient poor?  What adaptations do bog plants have for acquiring scarce nutrients?
6.  What is a concentric or raised bog?  An ecentric raised bog?  A patterned fen (also called string bog or aapa wetland)? A plateau (or paalsa) bog?  A blanket (or level) bog?  Where and how is each formed?
7.  How do bog trees avoid being buried by moss?  How do they minimize their chance of toppling over (they don’t stand on a firm floor)?
8.   Why are heaths common in bogs?  They have many adaptations to dry conditions, yet they stand in water.  Why the sunken stomata, hairy leaf bottoms, etc?
9.  Many animal types common in other wetlands are absent from bogs.  What factors prevent their presence?
10.  Why are bogs great places for paleoecologists and archeologists?  Why is skin and hair, but not bone preserved in bogs?
11.  How does peat mining affect bogs?  Is it a sustainable activity?
12.  If global warming occurs, peat may dry out.  What consequences will this have for the state of the atmosphere and for climate?

F.  WETLAND HISTORY AND REGULATIONS
1.  What sorts of wetland use went on in North America and in Europe prior to the European migration to America?
2.  Why were people afraid to live near wetlands?
3.  What were the Swamp Land Acts?  What impact did they have on wetlands?  How did they affect government policy?
4.  What role did the Department of Agriculture, the Work Progress Administration and the Internal Revenue Service play in wetlands conversion to farmland during the first three-quarters of this century?
5.  What was the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899?  What jobs did it give the Army Corps of Engineers?  How did the Corps activities affect wetlands?
6.  How have hunting and hunters impacted wetlands and their inhabitants?
7.  What was the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act (Duck Stamp Act)?  What role did it give the US Fish and Wildlife Program.
8.  What factors led to passage of the Coastal Zone Management Act in 1972?  What did this act say?  What impact has it had on salt marsh preservation?
9. What does Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (later the Clean Water Act) say with regard to the filling of wetlands?  How effective has this law been as a tool for wetlands protection?  What are its limitations?  Who manages the program (gives out permits)?
10.  Two presidental executive orders have played a major role in wetlands protection.  Who issued the orders, what were their contents, and what consequences did they have as far as federal policy was concerned?
11.  When did the National Wetlands Inventory began and which government agency has overseen its efforts?  Which president ordered the inventory?
12.  The 1985 Food Security Act includes a provision, now dubbed the Swampbuster Provision.  What does it say?  How has it affected agricultural drainage and filling of wetlands?
13.  When and by whom was the idea of “no net wetland loss” formulated?  Which president used the statement as a campaign slogan?  What is the reasoning behind the concept?
14.  Why was there so much controversy during the Bush I presidency over wetlands delineation manuals?
15.  What were some of the major “points” in Clinton’s 40 Point Plan?
16.  What is a wetlands mitigation bank?  What would be the advantages and disadvantages of such a bank?
17.  What is wetlands valuation?  How is it a threat to wetlands preservation?
18.  Republicans are often riled about the “takings” issue.  What is a “taking”?
19.   What has happened to the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act that was originally scheduled to occur early in the 1990s?
20.  What Vermont legislation provides protection to "significant" wetlands?  
21.  What was the Ramsar Convention?  Has it had any impact on wetlands protection in the US?
22.  How about the North American Waterfowl Management Plant?  What is it?  Who is involved?  How successful has it been?