Your Wetlands.org

From Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation by Dr. Paul A. Keddy – (Cambridge University Press, 2000/2002)
Wetlands… "are some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth; they rival both rain forest and cultivated land.
But unlike agricultural fields, this primary production occurs with no fossil fuel inputs in the form of petrol and fertilizer, no tending by humans, no artificial irrigation and no heavy machinery. Wetlands can therefore be regarded as factories in the landscape that mass produce both organic matter and oxygen to support surrounding ecosystems. Draining wetlands may therefore be compared to systematically smashing the factories that support life on earth."