this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 59 points 5 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 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (6 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] 11 points 5 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 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] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's mind bog-gling

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I just think it's fenny

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (8 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

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

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 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.

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

Everything is a wetland.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 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] 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It feels so liberating to hear it just said out loud

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

I forgot already before I started writing this comment

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I’ve never heard of a Fen before

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 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 5 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] 2 points 5 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

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

That's cuz ya basic like one :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (5 children)

You are not reading enough fantasy books, then.

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

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

do alkaline wetlands just almost never exist, because I've never heard the word fen before

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

It's basically a bog with freshwater coming in through the bottom.

There are some in Massachusets, Colorado, Estonia, and this region of the UK called the Fens.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

PREACH! MUTHAFUKA!!!

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

LOUDER, FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BOG!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How does this make you feel:

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Pretty hecking neutral

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Huh, TIL

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

Dale/glen???

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

And me still not giving a Fuck...

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

This is one of my pet trivias :) hard to remember the pH for bogs and fens though. It has something to do with rain vs groundwater.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I fucking hate Tumblr users

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks crossword puzzles!

These come up pretty often for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Especially Fen!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

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