Vegetation Processes in Swamps and Flooded Plains

Freshwater wetlands exhibit a continuum of variation in space and time, and categorization results in an artificial classification which although useful, often has little real meaning. Wetzel (1978) noted that definitions vary widely and are commonly useful only in detailed analyses of successional changes of wetland conditions and biota. In this discussion we do not attempt to define precisely the terms floodplain and swamp but consider them to reflect opposite ends of a continuum.