• wia@lemmy.caEnglish
      57·
      8 months ago

      Wildlife biologist here, Absolutely.

      Oddly enough I usually see/write it fen/bog marsh. There are tons of other qualifiers too, like salt marsh, tidal marsh and such.

      The same applies for all 4 examples if it’s needed. Salt swamps and fresh water swamps and such.

      • NielsBohron@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        Oddly enough I usually see/write it fen/bog marsh.

        I was going to ask about the order of adjectives, actually, since I find esoteric grammar rules oddly interesting and have been on a bit of a “adjectives hierarchy” kick lately.

      • Pilon23@feddit.dkEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        Are any of the combinations more prevalent than others? E.g. do bogs/fens encourage or discourage trees from growing?

      • livus@mander.xyzEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        I find this definition a lot more compelling than the one in the meme.

        In other words it’s more to do with geology and how the wetland has formed from groundwater vs water flow, than it is to do with characteristics like ph and trees - those things sort of proceed from the basic structure.

        • wia@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          Usually what happens is whoever needs to know has their own specific way of determining the thing.

          As a wildlife biologist, the meme description is pretty good and would suffice for just about anything I need. The present or recent past circumstances are the most important to my work.

          If I were interested in the geology, or say ground water, earth studiesor, or even the more distant past then this definition you share becomes more useful.

          There are going to be even more criteria that apply for different groups, and even sometimes none of these definitions we’ve seen would matter because you only care if it sustains a specific species or something even less obvious.

    • Pilon23@feddit.dkEnglish
      12·
      8 months ago

      I’m also curious. Can’t find a way to subscribe to a thread, so I’m leaving a comment to check back later

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      10·
      8 months ago

      I think this is more to do with scientists’ definitions than English in general. See also: what is and isn’t a nut, what is and isn’t a vegetable, is there such thing as a fish.

  • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    9·
    8 months ago

    I never knew the fen/bog part! The only reason I knew swamps from marshes is from labeling them in OpenStreetMap

  • Dagwood222@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    8 months ago

    So, it would be a swampy bog and a marshy fen, but not a boggy swamp or a fenny marsh?

    • scbasteve7@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      Just from what I found, swamps are wetlands with woody vegetation being what DOMINATLY inhibits it. So if it’s mixed, find out what there is more of. If it’s 50/50, I guess the universe collapses.

      And a wetland with a neutral ph is just called a neutral wetland.

  • Moonworm [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    8 months ago

    This is one of my pet trivias :) hard to remember the pH for bogs and fens though. It has something to do with rain vs groundwater.

  • blackbrook@mander.xyzEnglish
    2·
    8 months ago

    i love when scientists take a swamp of arbitrary language terms and decide to impose some arbitrary specific meanings on them for purposes of their specific discipline and then convince people who don’t really get how language works (i.e. most people) that the definitions are authoritative. it’s fun to watch the cognitive dissonance when this collides with actual usage and people get all angry and righteous.