The Human Impact on Wetlands

Research team calculated that the conversion of arctic and boreal wetlands into agricultural land would result in an additional cumulative radiative forcing of about 0.1 mJ per square meter for the next 100 years

Natural wetlands usually emit methane and sequester carbon dioxide. Anthropogenic impacts however, in particular the conversion of wetlands into cropland, result in a significant increase in CO2 emissions, which overcompensate potential decreases in methane emission, caused by the reduction of wetlands.

A large international research team now calculated that the conversion of arctic and boreal wetlands into agricultural land would result in an additional cumulative radiative forcing of about 0,1 mJ per square meter for the next 100 years. The conversion of temperate wetlands into agricultural land would even result in a cumulative radiative forcing of 0,15 mJ per square meter. Converting forested wetlands into managed forests also contributes to increased warming, albeit much less than the conversion of non-forested wetlands.

Wetlands are unique ecosystems, which - under natural conditions - are the single largest natural source of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4) but at the same time an important sink for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). The climate footprint of these ecosystems depends on the balance of these two important greenhouse gases. Despite methane being 28 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (in a 100 year time span), the conversion of natural wetlands into agricultural or forested ecosystems and its associated decrease in methane emissions still leads to an overall warming effect. „ The human impact on wetlands, such as drainage, results in a shift of the climate footprint of that wetland " says Torsten Sachs at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, co-author of the study. „ The overall balance of these two differently active greenhouse gases and thus the climate footprint of a wetland over different time spans depend on the relative sign and magnitude of these ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes" .

Source: GFZ

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