Reddam House Wetlands Case Study

Introduction
The purpose of this research task is to determine the ecological status of the Reddam House wetland; I will be doing this by testing the water in the area. I’ve chosen to do this because the water is a major deciding factor in the supporting of plant life and animal life, without the proper supply of water no plant life or animal life would be able to survive. I will be using Rand Water that will run a series of tests on the water, this will allow me to accurately read the results and interpret them to arrive at a conclusion.
Aim
To determine the ecological status of the Reddam House wetland through the testing of the water in the area.
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Hypothesis
The ecological status of the wetland should be relatively low due to the low quality
Wetlands supply us with clean water; wetlands are known to act as a natural filter. Wetlands filter out harmful substances from upstream (carried from factories, farms and mining) as well as harmful substances trapped in the rain water. They do this by utilizing plant life, which absorb harmful substances and convert them to useful, less harmful substances. They also use the soil in the wetlands to bury harmful substances.
Because of the abundance of water, a healthy wetland will support a vast number of plant and animal life. This is an important part of the ecosystem as it provides many animals with a natural habitat where food is easily accessible and plants are close enough to a water source to allow for sufficient growth and
This article starts off by describing the physical features of a wetland, describing what one may expect in a wetland area. Julia A. Cherry states that even though wetlands cover only 6 % of the earth surface, they are homes to most species for most or even part of their lives. The article goes on to describe the abiotic factors of an ecosystem, this clearly state the water quality is vital in the function and sustainability of a wetland. The rates at which water enters and leaves a wetland can vary due to geomorphology of the land, absorption through the soil and precipitation in the area; this will drastically affect the quality of the water by altering the sediment and nutrients in the water. The article finally states that the ever changing inflow and out flow as well as the oxygen levels in the wetlands leads to adaptations by the plant life and leads to a very diverse community of plant life.
This was a good article on how ecological status links to water quality and levels of oxygen and other substances in the area, this showed that plant and animal life depends on these factors to find wetlands a suitable