Water Pollution of Wetlands: A Global Threat to Inland, Wetland, and Aquatic Phytodiversity

Floristic Diversity And Successional Patterns In Wetlands

Wetlands represent the land areas that are covered by water bodies and formed due to flood i.e., floodwater (perpetual or periodic), strong tides (in coastal areas), percolation of water from a spring or an aquifer, etc. (Kundu, 2018). According to Cherry (2011), they are the transitional areas situated between land-based or terrestrial ecosystems and water-based or aquatic ecosystems.

Wetlands are the habitat for aquatic plants which are also called hydrophytes (Cronk and Fennessy, 2009). Hydrophytes or water-loving plants adapted to living in hydric soil throughout the year. In wetlands, plants are recognized as an indicator (Ling et al., 2019). Even plants also performa vital part in the wetlands classification (Shelef et al., 2013).

In wetlands, circumstances vary extensively resulting frequent alteration of the population to a wide array of the water quality. It includes turbidity, salinity, oxygen availability, pollution level, amount and availability of water, temperature etc (Bhateria and Jain, 2016).

Wetland floras are generally considered obligate aquatic species or facultative aquatic species (Sieben et al., 2021). Mitsch et al., (2012) remarked that wetland plants have to be partly or entirely submerged in water, at least have to remain in that condition for one of their developmental phases. Wetlands essentially have to endure anaerobic soils (Tiner, 1991; Cronk and Fennessy, 2009).