Importance of Wetlands

Nutrients are essential to life in many different ways.  For example, too much nitrate can become toxic to stream life, or too much phosphate can cause an excess growth of algae, thus depleting oxygen from streams and killing aquatic life (http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-1/net226.html).  These are just a few examples of how nutrient balance is crucial to stream ecosystem health. The study site is the Municipal Stadium Wetland, located just east of Buck Creek.  It is important as to capture pollutants and impurities from Buck Creek, so constant analysis of the Wetland's contents is crucial.

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