The Cowardin classification system is a system for classifying wetlands, devised by Lewis M. Cowardin ''et al.'' in 1979 for the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...

. The system includes five main types of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s: # Marine wetlands, which are areas exposed to the open

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

# Estuarine wetlands, partially enclosed by land and also exposed to a mixture of fresh and salt water bodies of water # Riverine wetlands, associated with flowing water # Lacustrine wetlands, associated with a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

or other body of fresh water # Palustrine wetlands, freshwater wetlands not associated with a river or lake. The primary purpose of this ecological classification system was to establish consistent terms and definitions used in inventory of wetlands and to provide standard measurements for mapping these lands.

References

* ;Notes Habitats {{ecology-stub

See also

References