Human activities such as marsh draining for agriculture and logging are increasingly consuming saltwater and freshwater wetlands. These important areas cover only 1% of Earth’s surface but store more than 20% of all the climate warming carbon dioxide absorbed by ecosystems worldwide.
“About 1 percent of the world’s wetlands are being lost each year to pollution or marsh draining for agriculture, development and other human activities,” said Brian R. Silliman, Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke University.
“Once disturbed, these wetlands release enormous amounts of CO2 from their soils, accounting for about 5 percent of global CO2 emissions annually,” Silliman said. “Hundreds, even thousands of years of stored carbon are exposed to air and start to rapidly decompose and release greenhouse gases. The result is an invisible reverse waterfall of CO2 draining into the atmosphere. The wetlands switch from being carbon sinks to sources.”
“The good news is, we now know how to restore these wetlands at a scale that was never before possible and in a way that both stops this release of carbon and re-establishes the wetland’s carbon-storing capacity,” he said.
Wetlands are so effective at carbon storage because they are formed and held together by plants that grow close to each other, Silliman explained. Their dense above and below ground mats of stems and roots trap nutrient rich debris and protect the soil against erosion or drying out. This helps the plants to grow better and the soil layer to build up, locking in a lot more CO2 in the process.
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