this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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Know the difference!!! (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago (3 children)

By that definition could you have a swamp bog, a swamp fen, a marsh bog, and a marsh fen?

[–] [email protected] 72 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

I'll have a tidal salt fen marsh, with extra tide.

[–] NielsBohron 2 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I don't specialize in that particular area so I couldn't say honestly.

My primary focus when I did was just dealing with the Everglades and surroundings for the most part.

Worldwide I'm not sure I could even guess what should be more common.

Canada has those prairie potholes which are usually marshes and Canada is huge, so maybe sheer numbers it could be something like that, but by size you get things like the Everglades. I'm sure someone knows though, just not me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's mind bog-gling

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I just think it's fenny

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As non-native english speaking person that's highly fascinating.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 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.

[–] SmoothOperator 16 points 3 months ago (7 children)

How am I supposed to estimate the pH value of a given wetland area without specialised equipment?

[–] dohpaz42 16 points 3 months ago
  1. Take a sip. Did you trip balls? Acid.
  2. Take a red wire, black wire, and a clock. Can you power the clock? Alkaline.

Duh.

[–] dogsnest 7 points 3 months ago

  1. Determine whether it's a swamp or a marsh.

  2. Tell someone else you did your part, now it's their turn.

[–] Anticorp 7 points 3 months ago

Just call it something online, if people don't immediately pop out of nowhere to correct you, then you're probably right.

[–] brap 5 points 3 months ago

What, you don't carry pH test strips around as a matter of routine? /s

[–] Mr_Wobble 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Lick it. Just a little bit. Just a little snaky lick...

[–] angrystego 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Learn botany. You can tell the approximate pH from the species of plants growing there.

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[–] General_Effort 1 points 3 months ago

Maybe you can find some red cabbage growing nearby?

[–] essteeyou 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Help, I'm stuck in a wetland, but I didn't bring my litmus test!

[–] chellomere 4 points 3 months ago

Sorry, I'm looking for you in the bog but you're not there

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So what do you call a wetland that has a neutral pH and mixed vegitation?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 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.

[–] Aux 3 points 3 months ago

Everything is a wetland.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It feels so liberating to hear it just said out loud

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I’ve never heard of a Fen before

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fen the wetland type or fen the plural of (sci fi/fantasy) fan? Or had you heard of neither?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like it could be the name of a Hobbit. But no, never heard the word used before. I’m from Georgia and live in Virginia. Never been to a mountain wetland or to middle earth

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I think I have only heard the term in:

  • The plural of fan: sci fi stories set in the distant future of 1990, also in early internet fandom
  • The wetland: stories from the UK, embedded in British place names, having a British parent

I wonder what sort of wetland my local one is, and the nearby swampy grasslands. Both are watered by rain or snowmelt. Both are marked as wetlands on maps

[–] Grabthar 3 points 3 months ago

That's cuz ya basic like one :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I forgot already before I started writing this comment

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

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

[–] Armand1 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How does this make you feel:

https://www.ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves/fen-bog-nature-reserve

[–] kameecoding 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Pretty hecking neutral

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

PREACH! MUTHAFUKA!!!

[–] Mr_Wobble 3 points 3 months ago

LOUDER, FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BOG!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Huh, TIL

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

And me still not giving a Fuck...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 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.

[–] xpinchx 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thanks crossword puzzles!

These come up pretty often for some reason.

[–] taiyang 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Especially Fen!

[–] xpinchx 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Epee, Oreo, era, isle, ore... Lol

[–] taiyang 1 points 3 months ago

Eel, ole, issa, rae, ssn... Lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I fucking hate Tumblr users

[–] NABDad 1 points 3 months ago

So is the pond in my yard that I created 25 years ago, but then neglected for most of the last 10 years a swamp or a marsh?

There's not a lot of woody crap growing in it, but there is a tree that sprouted at one end that I've been trying to kill.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Further evidence that the Marshbadge and the Soulbadge were accidentally switched.

[–] Anticorp 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I went backpacking through a bog once. It was quite the experience. It felt so foreign, almost like being in a fantasy world. I have pictures from that trip, and 80% of them are from the bog. LOL

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