Here, in the wetlands, where the water is especially generous, nature loses her shyness and shows blatant in the eyes of the beholder, who cannot do more than give in to the greatest show on Earth: The Life.
The term "wetlands" include a number of very different environments that share one common feature: the dominant role of water. In effect the water, which usually simits life development for its absence, tests here the inhabitants of the wetland hogging all the limelight. Wetland species will have to develop special adaptations to survive in these habitats and become, in general, endemic to humid environments due to its high degree of specialization.
But the dominant role of water leaves the door open to an endless of landscape possibilities. Salt marshes, mudflats, estuaries and lagoons are some of the ecosystems included in the jumble of wetlands. In addition, many of them are grouped to configure a very diverse mosaic of landscapes, capable of hosting an unparalleled biodiversity, difficult to match in an area so small. The diversification of these environments will result from the variation of certain factors such as salinity, the dissolved organic matter or oxygenation, all determined, in turn, by the nature of the water courses and runoff waters, of by the environmental conditions (evaporation, temperature, pH, etc).
But whatever be their nature, all aquatic environments have a common characteristic. Wetlands are the most productive ecosystems in all of those can be found in European lands. Nowhere else in Europe is capable of bringing such a large number of species, an unparalleled biodiversity in a latitude that used to be rather discreet in this regards. The relentless supply of nutrients from rivers and runoff waters is the fuel that drives this waste of life.
On the other hand, deserve special mention the water courses, aquatic ecosystems highly unique for its special structure and function. Rivers, streams and other water courses usually have, at least in its upper course, high levels of oxygenation and renewal in relation to other less-dynamic water-bodies. Water courses shape the rest of wetlands and serve as arteries of life for any other ecosystem that dares to interrupt their relentless journey to the sea.
Unfortunately the aquatic environments belong to the group of the most sensitive ecosystems to human disturbance. The particular configuration of water courses, acting as sinks for watershed over thousands of square kilometers, makes them especially vulnerable to contamination. Likewise, water is also a source of life for human beings who, in their fervent and uncontrolled development, put in risk the survival of aquifers and threaten the entire water system as a whole. Finally, we should consider the climate change produced, of course, by human being, as the future hangman of Iberian wetlands.
Perhaps it should be noted, again and again, that water is also a source of life for humans. As we usually do, we forget the hand that feeds us and thus we give back to our own origins. It is time to protect the wetlands as they deserve, not only as sources of biodiversity and beauty, but as environments capable of synthesizyng the essence of life itself, from the most trascendental point of view.
