Permanent Binding of Phosphorus to Soils Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for all forms of life, as it is a key structural component and necessary for several important biochemical pathways. This analysis only looks at the conditions present in the wetlands and determines if conditions are favorable to the sorption of phosphorus to sediments or to the formation of phosphate complexes. This analysis does not consider uptake by the plant community, which is addressed in another analysis. The image shown to right is a 1995 SPOT satellite image overlaid with National Wetlands Inventory wetland polygons that have been color coded to reflect the results of the analysis. Yellow areas indicate wetlands that have a low capacity to sorb dissolved phosphate.
Pink areas indicate wetlands that have a moderate capacity to sorb dissolved phosphate.
Red areas indicate wetlands that have a high capacity to sorb dissolved phosphate. Blue areas are wetlands for which there are insufficient data to analyze. Please click on the map for a larger view. Those wetlands that rate as moderate to high in capacity may be particularly important in protecting water quality in the region. Because these wetlands have some ability to moderate phosphorus levels, they are most likely providing important water quality benefits to waters that flow from or through them.