Buffers, sponges and moderators: A film about managing swampy meadows and wetlands
Rivers of Carbon have just released a fantastic new film about the value of swampy meadows in our landscape, and how best to manage them.
The swampy meadow is a riparian system that was very common in upland valleys of southeastern Australia at the time of European contact. It is essentially a floodplain that doesn’t have a continuous channel. As the name ‘swampy’ suggests, the alluvial sediments that make up the landform are regularly saturated, creating conditions that support a dense ‘meadow’ of moisture-loving grasses, sedges and rushes. Some, but not all, swampy meadows contain chains-of-ponds, which are irregularly spaced along the valley floor.
In the face of a changing climate, one that is expected to bring increased extremes in weather patterns, wouldn’t it be nice to have a riparian system you could describe as ‘buffers, sponges and moderators’. The swampy meadow does just that, and is a gem when it comes to bringing resilience to the waterways, farms and wildlife of this dry old continent.
Learn more about swampy meadows in the Rivers of Carbon Fact Sheet, or view their film here.
| Attachment | Size |
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 Buffers-sponges-and-moderators-fact-sheet.pdf | 915.38 KB |
