WETLANDS

Why wetlands are important. Wetlands are an essential ecosystem that promote  biodiversity and flood control. Like forests, they are an integral part of the carbon-sink. They are also essential to maintaining a livable climate - their destruction potentially accelerates global warming.  Covering just 6% of Earth’s land surface, wetlands (including marshes, peat bogs, swamps, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river floodplains) store 10-20% of its terrestrial carbon.  Some 60% of wetlands worldwide, and up to 90% in Europe  have been destroyed in the past 100 years, principally due to drainage for agriculture but also through pollution, dams, canals, groundwater pumping, urban development and peat extraction. link

What are wetlands? Generally, wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface. Wetlands vary widely because of regional and local differences in soils, topography, climate, hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation, and other factors, including human disturbance. Indeed, wetlands are found from the tundra to the tropics and on every continent except Antarctica. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. Wetlands' microbes, plants, and wildlife are part of global cycles for water, nitrogen, and sulfur. Furthermore, scientists are beginning to realize that atmospheric maintenance may be an additional wetlands function. Wetlands store carbon within their plant communities and soil instead of releasing it to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Thus wetlands help to moderate global climate conditions.

Part of their function is helping to control floods and prevent water logging of crops. The bottomland hardwood-riparian wetlands along the Mississippi River once stored at least 60 days of floodwater. Now they store only 12 days because most have been filled or drained. 
The ability of wetlands to control erosion is so valuable that some states are restoring wetlands in coastal areas to buffer the storm surges from hurricanes and tropical storms. Wetlands at the margins of lakes, rivers, bays, and the ocean protect shorelines and stream banks against erosion. Wetland plants hold the soil in place with their roots, absorb the energy of waves, and break up the flow of stream or river currents. link

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December 2009: New program similar to REDD needed to store carbon in waters. Dan Laffoley, marine vice chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, argues countries should be encouraged to establish marine protected areas - that is, set aside parts of the coast and sea where nature is allowed to thrive without undue human interference - and do what they can to restore habitats like salt marshes, kelp forests and sea-grass meadows. In addition to producing most of the oxygen we breathe, the ocean absorbs some 25% of current annual carbon dioxide emissions. Half the world’s carbon stocks are held in plankton, mangroves, salt marshes and other marine life. So it is at least as important to preserve this ocean life as it is to preserve forests. link 

WORLD'S WETLANDS - A "CARBON BOMB"

July 2008  Washington (Reuters) - The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, according to ecological scientists. Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere. 
If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, coordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Program in Brazil. "We could call it the carbon bomb," Teixeira said  "It's a very tricky situation." Wetlands are not just swamps: they also include marshes, peat bogs, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river flood plains. They also produce 25 percent of the world's food, purify water, recharge aquifers and act as buffers against violent coastal storms.  link

December  2010: Wetlands benefit from Cancun conference. Chief negotiators at UN talks agreed to consider letting rich countries cut their climate-changing emissions by "rewetting" degraded peatlands, in the first official sign of global action on the issue. It was a victory for conservationists who long fought for incentives in UN forestry and land-use proposals to entice governments to stop draining carbon-rich swamps. link

November 2009: Indonesia - Peat adds to problem.. In 2006, according to Wetlands International, a Dutch research and lobbying group, Indonesia's peatlands released roughly 1.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide - equal to the combined emissions that year of Germany, Britain and Canada, and more than U.S. emissions from road and air travel. When particularly bad fires raged in 1997, according to a study led by a British scientist, the amount was up to four times as high - more than the total emissions by the United States in that period. Estimating carbon emissions from deforested peatland is a highly complicated and inexact science. Even when not burning, dried peat leaks a slow but steady stream of carbon dioxide and other gases. Once it catches fire, the stream becomes a torrent. link

Some good news from the USA.  Not only has the U.S. largely stopped wetland destruction, it is undergoing significant wetland restoration, most notably in the Florida Everglades. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is estimated to cost $7.8 billion and take 30 years to complete, but it will help restore the south Florida ecosystem and provide sustainable water resources for the surrounding communities. It  will include artificial wetlands (”storm water treatment areas”), to receive and cleanse excess nutrients from neighbouring farm districts as well as water storage and will remove barriers to water flow that have caused significant damage to the ecosystem. link Of the original 215 million acres of wetlands existing 200 years ago in the continental United States, less than 100 million acres remain. Of those 100 million acres Florida has the most, with 11 million acres. Next are Louisiana (8.8 million), Minnesota (8.7 million), and Texas (7.6 million). link

Some not so good news - July 12 2009 - The world's most imperiled coastal marine ecosystem is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, although coastal marine ecosystems are at risk worldwide as a result of human activities, new research shows. Scientists at the University of California-Santa Barbara who performed the first integrated analysis of all coastal areas of the world conclude the nutrient runoff from upstream farms that flows down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico is responsible for the most tainted coastal ecosystem in the world. link

Why the Florida Everglades are important. 

“The Everglades is a test.  If we pass we get to keep the planet.”  - Joe Podgor, Former Executive Director of Friends of the Everglades. The Everglades is already stressed as a result of the increased population of south Florida and dramatic changes to water supply and flow over the past 60 years. At the same time it is one of the most crucial habitats for threatened and endangered species such as the Florida panther, West Indian manatee, and the southern bald eagle. Florida is expected to be particularly affected by rising sea levels, making the restoration of the Everglades even more important for helping south Florida adapt to the effects of climate change.  link

October 11 2011: As sea level rises, Everglades become more vital to south Florida’s survival. Climate change threatens every part of the U.S. in one-way or another, but in South Florida, it’s not just a threat: it’s a looming catastrophe. Much of the area lies just a few feet above sea level, and thanks to warming temperatures and melting polar ice, the sea is on the rise. A few decades from now, significant parts of the region could literally be underwater. Not only that: while hurricanes could be fewer as time goes on, the ones that do sweep in are likely to be more powerful, with higher winds and more devastating storm surges that will drive the high water much deeper inland.  link

What can be done?
Many opportunities exists for private citizens, corporations, government agencies, and other groups to work together to slow the rate of wetland loss and to improve the quality of our remaining wetlands. First state and local governments need to be encouraged to establish programs to effectively protect wetlands, especially inland wetlands, within their borders. Second, because individual landowners and corporations own many of the nation's wetlands, they are in a key position to determine the fate of wetlands on their properties. Finally, all citizens, whether or not they own wetlands, can help protect wetlands by supporting wetlands conservation initiatives.  

How you can make a difference?  link

Other sites for wetland links - here