swamp

—swampish, adj.

/swomp/, n.

1. a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation.

v.t.

2. to flood or drench with water or the like.

3. Naut. to sink or fill (a boat) with water.

4. to plunge or cause to sink in or as if in a swamp.

5. to overwhelm, esp. to overwhelm with an excess of something: He swamped us with work.

6. to render helpless.

7. to remove trees and underbrush from (a specific area), esp. to make or cleave a trail (often fol. by out).

8. to trim (felled trees) into logs, as at a logging camp or sawmill.

v.i.

9. to fill with water and sink, as a boat.

10. to sink or be stuck in a swamp or something likened to a swamp.

11. to be plunged into or overwhelmed with something, esp. something that keeps one busy, worried, etc.

[1615-25; < D zwamp creek, fen; akin to SUMP and to MLG swamp, ON svoppr sponge]

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I

Freshwater wetland ecosystem characterized by poorly drained mineral soils and plant life dominated by trees.

Swamps have a sufficient water supply to keep the ground waterlogged, and the water has a high-enough mineral content to stimulate decay of organisms and to prevent the accumulation of organic materials. They are found throughout the world. See also marsh.

II

(as used in expressions)

Big Cypress Swamp

Congaree Swamp National Monument

Dismal Swamp

Great Dismal Swamp

The Swamp Fox

Okefenokee Swamp

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▪ wetland

      wetland ecosystem characterized by mineral soils with poor drainage and by plant life dominated by trees. The latter characteristic distinguishes a swamp from a marsh, in which plant life consists largely of grasses. Swamps are found throughout the world. They exist in areas with poor drainage and sufficient water supply to keep the ground waterlogged, and they have a high enough supply of minerals in the water to stimulate decay of organisms and prevent the accumulation of organic materials. They are often found in regions of low relief associated with rivers (river) that supply the water. Compare marsh.

      Rivers in mature valleys frequently have extensive marshes and swamps along their sides. Floodplains elevated only a few feet above river level, abandoned river channels, and oxbows may have standing or sluggishly flowing water for appreciable parts of the year and thus support swamps and marshes.

      River swamps are abundant along the coastal plain in the southeastern United States. They are delightfully described in their primeval condition by William Bartram in his account Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, written in 1791. These were the swamps that Francis Marion (Marion, Francis) used so successfully to escape the British forces during the Revolutionary War and the source of his nickname, “the old swamp fox.”

 The Great Dismal Swamp, of North Carolina and Virginia, actually a mixture of waterways, swamps, and marshes, is a coastal-plain swamp, although it is not associated with a large river. The Mississippi (Mississippi River) and its lower tributaries, such as the Red River and parallel rivers in eastern Texas, have extensive swamps along the sluggish portions that flow through the coastal plain. The Paraná (Paraná River) and Paraguay (Paraguay River) rivers in South America have extensive swamps and marshes along their courses. A mixture of swamps and marshes in Georgia called the Okefenokee Swamp is the source of the Suwannee River.

 The Florida Everglades constitutes a unique marsh-swamp combination growing on a limestone base. Because the region is near sea level, the water from the abundant rains does not drain but remains on the surface. Large cypress swamps occur to the northwest of the Everglades.

      Topography and water supply are the two most important features in determining the distribution of freshwater swamps. The nature of soils and bedrock is of importance in determining the drainage in a region, but wetlands may exist locally on any base from sands to impervious rock.

      The flow of water through wetlands is slow because of low gradients and retarding effects of the vegetation. Dead plant matter settles rather than being washed away. The slow replacement and lack of turbulence in the water result in a low rate of oxygen supply. Decay of the dead vegetation quickly uses up what oxygen is supplied, so that the mud and bottom waters are low or lacking in oxygen content. Under these conditions, the decay of organic matter is incomplete. This causes an accumulation of the more resistant fraction (humates and tannins) in the substratum. The familiar swamp water, varying from yellow to such a deep brown that it resembles strong tea or coffee, is the result.

      The number of plant species in swamps is few compared to the numbers that grow on well-watered but not waterlogged land. Cattails (Typha) and common reeds (Phragmites) are familiar swamp species around the world. Papyrus, a sedge, is widespread in the tropics. Bald cypress is an example of a tree adapted to growth in swamps, but gums, willows, alders, and maples are also common. Tropical swamps have many tree species including palms.

 Salt swamps are formed by seawater flooding and draining, which exposes flat areas of intertidal land. Regularly flooded, protected areas develop mangrove swamps in tropical and subtropical regions. Mangroves will grow in pure sand at the edge of the sea. Extensive swamps develop mainly where land runoff is sufficient to bring a supply of sediments that accumulate and extend the swamp. The deltas of the Mekong (Mekong River), Amazon (Amazon River), Congo (Congo River), and Ganges (Ganges River) and the north coast of Australia and of Sumatra have notable and extensive mangrove swamps.

      Tropical swamp trees often develop buttresses that apparently help support them, though buttresses are also common on many upland trees in the tropics. Generally, all swamp trees lack deep-growing roots. Roots tend to stay near the surface, probably because of the lack of oxygen in the soil. Being near the surface gives a large lateral spread to the root system, which also gives the tree support against lateral stresses from winds or water flow. The shallowness of the roots also often produces the appearance of buttresses in temperate swamp trees because the beginnings of the roots, usually hidden in the soil, are visible at the surface.

      Different species of trees that grow in temporary swamps differ considerably in their resistance to submersion—i.e., to lack of oxygen. This is serious during the submersion period but is not a problem in drier periods, at least in the shallow layers of the soil. In North American swamps, alders and willows will survive or even thrive on land immersed for periods as long as one month, whereas red gum survives only about two weeks. Cottonwood begins to show the effects of submergence after only two days and survives only one week.

      The tops of mangrove trees shelter a diverse group of animals that are unaffected by seawater, because they never contact it. In general, swamp animals are little affected by wetland conditions except as those conditions affect the species of trees growing in the swamp. Whereas the diversity of plants is limited by the stresses that the presence of water entails, the animal diversity is more a reflection of the plant diversity than the nature of the water supply.

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