4.1.10.B

=**Relationship Among Landforms, Vegetation and the Amount and speed of water**=

Vegetation and Landfrom Functions
Wetlands consist of mostly slow moving or still water. The reason for that waterspeed is that all of the plants in the wetlands slow the water down. Those conditions are what allows many plants to survive. The soil in wetlands is water saturated which is what many of the wetland plants are adapted to. If there was not enough water present to keep the soil saturated the plants would have trouble surviving. Mostly shallow water is favorable to many plants. If the water for some plants raises to quickly or becomes to deep the plants will die becasue they are not adapted to those conditions(Water and Rivers Comission, 2000). Vegetation also helps with the reduction of erosion. Erosion occurs because of the quick water speeds that erode away at something. The vegetation slows down waterspeeds, therefore slowing down erosion. Another thing vegetation helps with is the cleaning of water. Wetlands and the plants in them work as decontaminants. The plants take and store many contaminants flowing in the water. Some landorms that would affect differences in wetalnds would mostly be mountainous landfroms affecting elevation. Wetlands at a higher elevation may not contain as much water as lower elevation wetlands. When precipitation falls it generally runs down the mountains and not into higher wetlands.(Wetlands and Water Quality, Miller).

**4.1 Watersheds pd2**