Prelimsverse: Significance of Wetlands

1. Wetlands are particularly important providers of all water-related ecosystem services
   1. They regulate water quantity and groundwater recharge.
   2. Can contribute to regulating floods and the impacts of storms. 
   3. Wetlands also help in erosion control and sediment transport, thereby contributing to land formation and increasing resilience to storms.
   4. They are referred to as the “Earth’s kidneys” as it filters the pollutants thus maintaining and improving the quality of the water.
2. Wetlands are productive areas for plant life, animals and wetland agriculture.
   1. Nutrient Cycling 
   2. Niche Specialisation 
   3. Aquatic Plants and Macrophytes. (Macrophytes could be fully submerged or emergent like lilies and lotuses).
   4. They are rich in Algae. These form the nutrient base upon which fish, crustaceans, molluscs, birds, reptiles and mammals thrive.
3. Wetlands are the major habitat for most of the world’s waterbirds and key habitat for migratory species.
   1. Almost all of the world’s water birds use wetlands as feeding and breeding grounds. 
4. Wetlands are an important source of food
   1. Well-managed rice paddy systems
   2. Production of fish, molluscs and crustaceans
5. Others 
   1. Peat land has the capability to store the carbondioxide more than Earth’s forest.

Conclusion: 

The fragile ecosystem of the wetlands is lost due to draining of wetlands, development along waterways like dams, canals, stream channelizing, discharge of industrial and municipal sewage, and urban runoff. Wetlands are mined for agricultural practices resulting in the loss of habitat and facing the effects of Nature’s fury.