Link to lesson Wetlands are combinations of land and water. They
may be covered by water most of the time or only on occasion.
Plants and animals living here must be specially adapted to
survive the twice daily changes of incoming and outgoing tides,
resulting mainly from the gravitational pull of the moon on the
water as the earth turns. Virginia's tidal wetlands include salt
marshes, brackish and freshwater marshes, and swamps. Wetlands
along the water's edge provide the following valuable services:
- Absorb excess flood water - Protect uplands from the storm
damage of wind and waves - Provide constant, ideal habitat-
including food and shelter for many animals and essential
nursery habitat for others - Filter out pollution - Mix oxygen
into the water. Tributaries & Watershed When it rains in the
Chesapeake's drainage basin, or watershed, most of that water
flows across the land surface into streams and rivers, then into
the Bay and, eventually, on to the Atlantic Ocean. More than
half of Virginia's land bas