swamp
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(swŏmp, swômp) 
n.
v., swamped, swamp·ing, swamps. v.tr.
To become full of water or sink.
swampy swamp'y adj.
n.
- A seasonally flooded bottomland with more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog.
- A lowland region saturated with water.
- A situation or place fraught with difficulties and imponderables: a financial swamp.
v., swamped, swamp·ing, swamps. v.tr.
- To drench in or cover with or as if with water.
- To inundate or burden; overwhelm: She was swamped with work.
- Nautical. To fill (a ship or boat) with water to the point of sinking it.
To become full of water or sink.
[Perhaps of Low German origin .]
swampiness swamp'i·ness n.swampy swamp'y adj.
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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. marsh.
For more information on swamp, visit Britannica.com.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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swamp
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Origin: 1624
England had marshes, bogs, and fens, but only America had swamps. And, according to that tireless promoter Captain John Smith, what a difference! The Virginia rivers, he wrote in his 1624 Generall Historie, are "free from any inundations, or large Fenny unwholsome Marshes." He continues, "For salt Marshes or Quagmires, in this tract of James Towne River I know very few; some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull." Smith does not explain what a swamp is, or how it could be "profitable" but the American swamp clearly is to be preferred over the English muck. A swamp would be fertile, and it would not lack for water.
The lay of the land and its suitability to farming were paramount concerns to the English colonists. In the 1600s they noted swamp lots (1637), swamp land (1663), and swamp meadows (1697). They gave swamp names to plants like the swamp wood tree (1666) and the swamp oak (1681) and animals like the swamp robin (1769) and swamp quail (1778).
And then there were the swamp angels. The term was used facetiously as early as 1857 to refer to people who live in the swamps or Backwoods (1709). During the Civil War, at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, the large Union Army gun that fired shells from the swamp into the city was soon nicknamed the Swamp Angel.
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v. 1. overwhelm or flood with water: a huge wave swamped the canoes.
2. (of a boat) become overwhelmed with water and sink.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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swamp
swamp, shallow body of water in a low-lying, poorly drained depression, usually containing abundant plant growth dominated by trees, such as cypress, and high shrubs. Swamps develop in moist climates, generally in such places as low-lying coastal plains, floodplains of rivers, and old lake basins or in areas where normal drainage has been disrupted by glacial deposits. In the United States, swamps cover approximately 100,000 sq mi (260,000 sq km), most of them occurring as small swamps in northeastern states that were covered with glaciers in the past. The most extensive swamps are found along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, notable examples being the Everglades of S Florida, Dismal Swamp of Virginia, and Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia and N Florida. Because the bottom of a swamp is at or below the water table, swamps serve to channel runoff into the groundwater supply, thus helping to stabilize the water table. During periods of very heavy rains, a swamp can act as a natural flood control device, as excess runoff can be temporarily stored in its basin. Swamp vegetation varies with climate. Grasses, rushes, and sphagnum moss predominate in temperate climates; cypress and mangrove predominate in more tropical regions. Lush vegetation provides great protection for nesting waterfowl and fish as well as a hospitable habitat for many types of small mammal such as beaver and otter. Swamps that are drained make excellent agricultural land because of the high organic content of the bottom sediments. In addition, rising land values and demand have encouraged the drainage of many swamplands, such as coastal Florida, for home development. However, a problem associated with recently drained swamps is oxidation of the thick peat deposits forming the soil, which can result in subsidence of the land and such problems as cracked walls, broken underground pipes, and buckled roadways. The increased use of drained swampland for urban construction, with its associated acres of blacktop paving and storm sewers, results in greater runoff and increases the probability of flooding and pollution in these regions. Swamp drainage also destroys the nesting areas of many wildlife species. Thus, environmentalists have urged, with increasing success, the slowing down of swamp drainage. There are a variety of local terms for swamps, including bog, marsh, fen, and moor. However, bog usually refers to a swampy depression with a thick mat of living and dead organic matter floating on the water surface and a low level of oxygen in the water below. Marsh implies a large area of wet land where the dominant vegetation consists of low-lying grasses, rushes, and sedges.
‘(place at) the marsh’, OE mersc: Marsh Shropshire Mersse (1086) (DB). Marsh Gibbon Buckinghamshire Merse (1086) (DB), Mersh Gibwyne (1292). Manorial affix from the Gibwen family, here in the 12th cent.
| Marsden, Marsco, Marrick | |
| Marsh Baldon, Marsh Baldon & Toot Baldon, Marsham |
McGraw-Hill Slang Dictionary:
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swamped
1. mod. very, very busy. I can't handle it now. I'm swamped.
2. mod. alcohol intoxicated. Look at him! He's swamped—stoned out of his mind.
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A seasonally flooded bottomland with more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog.
Word Tutor:
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swamp
IN BRIEF: Wet, spongy land, marsh, bog.
This swamp is a monument to death. Snakes, alligators, quicksand, all bent on one thing: destruction.
— Edward D. Wood Jr. (1922-1978), U.S. director, screenwriter.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
The Dream Encyclopedia:
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Swamp
When we dream about being in a swamp, we are often feeling bogged down with something. Water often symbolizes emotion, so it could be our emotional life that is causing us to feel bogged down. (See also Slow Motion).
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verb intr.
verb intr., Austral
To obtain a lift; to travel as a driver's assistant. (1897 —) .
W. W. Ammon et al. He promised that if I gave him a hand to load the big wagon I could swamp up with him for as far as I wanted to go (1984).
[Back-formation from swampernoun 2 .]
verb intr., Austral
To obtain a lift; to travel as a driver's assistant. (1897 —) .
W. W. Ammon et al. He promised that if I gave him a hand to load the big wagon I could swamp up with him for as far as I wanted to go (1984).
[Back-formation from swamper
| swallow, swag, swacked | |
| swamper, swan, swankpot |
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Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'swamp'
- Plains and Marshes - swamp: wet, boggy land
- Violent Actions - swamp: overwhelm by submerging; sink
See crossword solutions for the clue
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"Swampland" redirects here. For the scientific concept, see Swampland (physics).
This article is about the landform. For other uses, see Swamp (disambiguation).
A swamp is a wetland that is forested[1]. Many swamps occur along large rivers, where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations[2]. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes[3]. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.[4] The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo[5].
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Geology
Swamps are characterized by very slow-moving waters. They are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. In some cases, rivers become swamps for a distance. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief.
Draining
Swamps were historically drained to provide additional land for agriculture, and to reduce the threat of diseases born by swamp insects and similar animals.[6] Many swamps were also heavily logged, which also required construction of drainage ditches and canals. These contributed as well to drainage, and, along the coast, allowed salt water intrusion that converted swamps to marsh or open water.[7] Large areas of swamp were therefore lost, or degraded. Louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors.[8] Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands.[9] As another example, New Zealand has lost 90 percent of its wetlands over the past 150 years.[10] It is now appreciated that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat.[11] In many parts of the world swamps are protected. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration is becoming widespread[12][13]. Often the simplest steps to restoring swamps are to plug drainage ditches and remove levees.[14]
Famous examples
The largest swamp in the world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species[15][16][17].
Africa
The Sudd and the Okavango Delta are Africa's best known marshland areas.
Asia
The Vasyugan Swamp is a large swamp in the western Siberia area of the Russian Federation. This is one of the largest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland. The Tigris-Euphrates river system is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq, traditionally inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs.
North America
Atchafalaya Swamp at the lower end of the Mississippi River is the largest swamp in the United States. It is an important example of southern cypress swamp[18] but it has been greatly altered by logging, drainage and levee construction[19]. Other famous swamps in the United States are the Everglades, Okefenokee Swamp, Barley Barber Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp. The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia and extends slightly into northeastern Florida. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia and extreme northeastern North Carolina. Both are National Wildlife Refuges. Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake of extreme western Tennessee and Kentucky, was created by the New Madrid earthquake of 1812. Caddo Lake, the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps that are centered at large lakes. Swamps are often called bayous in the southeastern United States, especially in the Gulf Coast region.
Land value and productivity
Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies, or woodlands. They have a reputation as being unproductive land that can't be easily utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers for example typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops.
Societies now generally understand that swamps are critically important in the processes of providing fresh water and oxygen to all life, and are often breeding grounds for a wide isolated variety of life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are extremely important in fish production[20]. Government environmental agencies (such as the Department of Natural Resources in the United States) are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps and other wetlands. In Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers[21]
List of major swamps
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This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010) |
The worlds largest wetlands include significant areas of swamp, such as in the Amazon and Congo River basins[22]. Further north, however, the largest wetlands are bogs.
Africa
Asia
- Asmat Swamp, Indonesia
- Vasyugan Swamp, Russia
- Candaba Swamp in Apalit, Batangas, Candaba in Pampanga and Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines
- Mangrove Swamp in Karachi, Pakistan
North America
- Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, United States
- Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, United States
- Barley Barber Swamp, Florida, United States
- Everglades, Florida, United States
- Great Black Swamp, Indiana/Ohio, United States
- Great Cypress Swamp, Maryland, United States, also known as Great Pocomoke Swamp
- Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina/Virginia, United States
- Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, United States
- Green Swamp, Florida, United States
- Green Swamp, North Carolina, United States
- Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana, United States
- Hudson Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada
- Limberlost, Indiana, United States
- Louisiana swamplands, Louisiana, United States
- Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, Puxico, Missouri, United States
- Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia/Florida, United States
- Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee/Kentucky, United States
- Shu Swamp, New York, United States
- Congaree Swamp, South Carolina, United States
South America
See also
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Swamps |
- ^ Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p.
- ^ Hughes, F.M.R. (ed.). 2003. The Flooded Forest: Guidance for policy makers and river managers in Europe on the restoration of floodplain forests. FLOBAR2, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 96 p.
- ^ Wilcox, D.A, Thompson, T.A., Booth, R.K. and Nicholas, J.R. 2007. Lake-level variability and water availability in the Great Lakes. USGS Circular 1311. 25 p.
- ^ Swamp (from glossary web page of the United States Geological Survey)
- ^ Keddy, P.A., L.H. Fraser, A.I. Solomeshch, W.J. Junk, D.R. Campbell, M.T.K. Arroyo and C.J.R. Alho. 2009. Wet and wonderful: the world’s largest wetlands are conservation priorities. BioScience 59: 39-51.
- ^ Dugan, P. (ed.) 2005. Guide to Wetlands. Buffalo, New York. Firefly Books. 304 p.
- ^ Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p.
- ^ Keddy, P.A., D. Campbell, T. McFalls, G. Shaffer, R. Moreau, C. Dranguet, and R. Heleniak. 2007. The wetlands of lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas: past, present and future. Environmental Reviews 15: 1- 35.
- ^ Dugan, P. (ed.) 2005. Guide to Wetlands. Buffalo, New York. Firefly Books. 304 p.
- ^ Peters, M. and Clarkson, B. 2010. Wetland Restoration: A Handbook for New Zealand Freshwater Systems. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, N.Z. ISBN: 978-0-478-34707-4 (online)
- ^ Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Chapter 11.
- ^ Hughes, F.M.R. (ed.). 2003. The Flooded Forest: Guidance for policy makers and river managers in Europe on the restoration of floodplain forests. FLOBAR2, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 96 p.
- ^ Environment Canada. 2004. How Much Habitat is Enough? A Framework for Guiding Habitat Rehabilitation in Great Lakes Areas of Concern. 2nd ed. 81 p.
- ^ Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Chapter 13.
- ^ Goulding, M. (1980). The Fishes and the Forest: Explorations in Amazonian Natural History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- ^ Lowe-McConnell, R. H. (1975). Fish Communities in Tropical Freshwaters: Their Distribution, Ecology and Evolution. London: Longman
- ^ L.H. Fraser and P.A. Keddy (eds.). 2005. The World’s Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 488 p.
- ^ Conner, W. H. and Buford, M. A. (1998). Southern deepwater swamps. In Southern Forested Wetlands: Ecology and Management, eds. M. G. Messina and W. H. Conner, pp. 261–87. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers.
- ^ Reuss, M. (1998). Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin 1800–1995. Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office of History.
- ^ Lowe-McConnell, R. H. (1975). Fish Communities in Tropical Fresh waters: Their Distribution, Ecology and Evolution. London: Long man
- ^ Hughes, F.M.R. (ed.). 2003. The Flooded Forest: Guidance for policy makers and river managers in Europe on the restoration of floodplain forests. FLOBAR2, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 96 p.
- ^ L.H. Fraser and P.A. Keddy (eds.). 2005. The World’s Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 488 p.
| Wetlands |
| Swamp · Freshwater swamp forest · Coniferous swamp · Marsh · Salt marsh · Bog · Peat swamp forest · Fen · Vernal pool · Flooded grasslands and savannas · Constructed wetland · Riparian zone |
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Translations:
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Swamp
Dansk (Danish)
n. - sump, mose
v. tr. - overskylle, oversvømme, fylde med vand, synke, overvælde
v. intr. - blive fyldt med vand, blive oversvømmet
Nederlands (Dutch)
moeras, overstelpen, onder laten lopen
Français (French)
n. - marais, marécage
v. tr. - inonder
v. intr. - couvrir, inonder
Deutsch (German)
n. - Sumpf
v. - überschwemmen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - βάλτος, τέλμα
v. - κατακλύζω/-ομαι, αποτελματώνω/-ομαι
Italiano (Italian)
colmare, palude
Português (Portuguese)
n. - pântano (m)
v. - inundar
Русский (Russian)
болото, топь, трясина, затоплять, тонуть, погружаться, заваливать (письмами и т.п.), наводнять, губить, засасывать
Español (Spanish)
n. - pantano, ciénaga
v. tr. - abrumar, inundar, hundir, atollar, empantanar, encenegar, sumergir, encharcar
v. intr. - empantanarse, encenagarse, hundirse, irse a pique
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - träsk, kärr, sumpmark, myr
v. - översvämma, belägra, överfylla, drunkna i, ställa i skuggan, fyllas med vatten
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
沼泽, 困境, 沼泽地, 淹没, 清除, 击溃, 陷入沼泽, 被淹没, 下沉, 陷入困境
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 沼澤, 困境, 沼澤地
v. tr. - 淹沒, 清除, 擊潰
v. intr. - 陷入沼澤, 被淹沒, 下沈, 陷入困境
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 늪, 소택[지], 습지
v. tr. - 늪에 빠지게 하다, 휩쓸다, 침수시키다
v. intr. - 침수되다, 가라앉다, 빠지다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 沼地
v. - 水浸しにする, 水没させる, 押し寄せる
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مستنقع , ارض سبخه (فعل) يغمر , يغرق
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אדמת בוץ, ביצה
v. tr. - הציף, מילא במים, הכריע, כיסה לגמרי
v. intr. - הוצף
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