A reedbed or reed bed is a natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

found in

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

s, waterlogged depressions and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As reedbeds age, they build up a considerable litter layer that eventually rises above the water level and that ultimately provides opportunities in the form of new areas for larger terrestrial plants such as

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s and

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s to colonise. Artificial reedbeds are used to remove pollutants from

greywater Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater fro ...

, and are also called

constructed wetlands A constructed wetland is an artificial wetland to treat sewage, greywater, stormwater runoff or industrial wastewater. It may also be designed for land reclamation after mining, or as a mitigation step for natural areas lost to land developme ...

.Does Botanical Diversity in Sewage Treatment Reed Beds Enhance Invertebrate Diversity?
/ref>

Types

Reedbeds vary in the species that they can support, depending upon water levels within the wetland system, climate, seasonal variations, and the nutrient status and salinity of the water. ''Reed swamps'' have 20 cm or more of surface water during the summer and often have high invertebrate and bird species use. ''Reed fens'' have water levels at or below the surface during the summer and are often more botanically complex. Reeds and similar plants do not generally grow in very acidic water. In these situations, reedbeds are replaced by

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

s and vegetation such as

poor fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich Groundwater, ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known ...

. Although common reeds are characteristic of reedbeds, not all vegetation dominated by this species is characteristic of reedbeds. It also commonly occurs in unmanaged, damp

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

and as an understorey in certain types of damp

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

Wildlife

Most

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an reedbeds mainly comprise common reed ('' Phragmites australis'') but also include many other tall monocotyledons adapted to growing in wet conditions – other grasses such as reed sweet-grass ('' Glyceria maxima''), Canary reed-grass ('' Phalaris arundinacea'') and small-reed ('' Calamagrostis''

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

), large sedges (species of ''

Carex ''Carex'' is a vast genus of over 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family (biology), family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges (or seg, in older books). Other members of the family Cyperaceae are also called sedges, however those of ge ...

'', '' Scirpus'', ''

Schoenoplectus ''Schoenoplectus'' (club-rush ld World species bulrush or tule ew World species is a genus of plants in the Cyperaceae, sedge family with a cosmopolitan distribution. Note that the name bulrush is also applied to species in the unrelated ...

'', '' Cladium'' and related

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

), yellow flag iris ('' Iris pseudacorus''), reed-mace ("bulrush" – ''

Typha ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrushStreeter D, Hart-Davies C, Hardcastle A, Cole F, Harper L. 2009. ' ...

'' species), water-plantains ('' Alisma'' species), and flowering rush ('' Butomus umbellatus''). Many

dicotyledon The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...

s also occur, such as water mint ('' Mentha aquatica''), gipsywort ('' Lycopus europaeus''), skull-cap ('' Scutellaria'' species), touch-me-not balsam ('' Impatiens noli-tangere''), brooklime ('' Veronica beccabunga'') and water forget-me-nots ('' Myosotis'' species). Many animals are adapted to living in and around reedbeds. These include mammals such as

Eurasian otter The Eurasian otter (''Lutra lutra''), also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, European river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia and the Maghreb. The most widely distributed member o ...

, European beaver, water vole, Eurasian harvest mouse and water shrew, and birds such as great bittern, purple heron, European spoonbill, water rail (and other rails), purple gallinule, marsh harrier, various warblers ( reed warbler, sedge warbler etc.), bearded reedling and reed bunting.

Uses

Constructed wetlands

Constructed wetlands are artificial swamps (sometimes called ''reed fields'') using reed or other marshland plants to form part of small-scale

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

treatment systems.

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

trickling through the reedbed is cleaned by

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s living on the root system and in the litter. These organisms utilize the sewage for growth

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s, resulting in a clean effluent. The process is very similar to aerobic conventional sewage treatment, as the same organisms are used, except that conventional treatment systems require artificial aeration.

Treatment ponds

Treatment ponds are small versions of constructed wetlands which uses reedbeds or other marshland plants to form an even smaller water treatment system. Similar to constructed wetlands, water trickling through the reedbed is cleaned by

s living on the root system and in the litter. Treatment ponds are used for the water treatment of a single house or a small neighbourhood.

Gallery

Svyatoshyn ponds5.JPG, Reedbed of '' Phragmites australis'' and '' Carex acutiformis'' D-Lindau-NSG Reutiner Bucht.JPG, Reedbed of '' Phragmites australis'' and '' Typha latifolia'' File:Miscanthus sp.JPG, Reedbed of '' Miscanthus'' Arundo donax 2007 (cropped).JPG, Reedbed of '' Arundo donax''

References

{{Authority control Ecology