MSGID: 1:317/3 6274a4cd   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Land-building marsh plants are champions of carbon capture    
    Wetlands are Earth's most efficient natural storage system for climate-   
   warming carbon dioxide    
      
     Date:   
         May 5, 2022   
     Source:   
         Duke University   
     Summary:   
         Human activities such as marsh draining for agriculture are   
         increasingly eating away at saltwater and freshwater wetlands   
         that cover only 1% of Earth's surface but store more than 20%   
         of all carbon dioxide absorbed by ecosystems worldwide. A new   
         study shows that it's not too late to reverse the losses if   
         we use innovative restoration practices that replicate natural   
         landscape-building processes that enhance the restored wetlands'   
         carbon-storing potential.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Human activities such as marsh draining for agriculture and logging   
   are increasingly eating away at saltwater and freshwater wetlands that   
   cover only 1% of Earth's surface but store more than 20% of all the   
   climate-warming carbon dioxide absorbed by ecosystems worldwide.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   A new study published May 6 in Science by a team of Dutch, American and   
   German scientists shows that it's not too late to reverse the losses.   
      
   The key to success, the paper's authors say, is using innovative   
   restoration practices -- identified in the new paper -- that replicate   
   natural landscape- building processes and enhance the restored wetlands'   
   carbon-storing potential.   
      
   And doing it on a large scale.   
      
   "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, Rachel Carson Distinguished   
   Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke University, who   
   coauthored the study.   
      
   "Once disturbed, these wetlands release enormous amounts of CO2from their   
   soils, accounting for about 5 percent of global CO2emissions 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 CO2draining 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.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   What makes most wetlands so effective at carbon storage is that 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 defend the soil against erosion or drying out --   
   all of which helps the plants to grow better and the soil layer to build   
   up, locking in a lot more CO2 in the process.   
      
   In the case of raised peat bogs, the process works a little differently,   
   Silliman noted. Layers of living peat moss on the surface act as sponges,   
   holding enormous amounts of rainwater that sustain its own growth and   
   keeps a much thicker layer of dead peat moss below it permanently under   
   water. This prevents the lower layer of peat, which can measure up to   
   10 meters thick, from drying out, decomposing, and releasing its stored   
   carbon back into the atmosphere. As the living mosses gradually build up,   
   the amount of carbon stored below ground continually grows.   
      
   Successful restorations must replicate these processes, he said.   
      
   "More than half of all wetland restorations fail because the   
   landscape-forming properties of the plants are insufficiently taken   
   into account," said study coauthor Tjisse van der Heide of the Royal   
   Institute for Sea Research and the University of Groningen in the   
   Netherlands. Planting seedlings and plugs in orderly rows equidistant   
   from each other may seem logical, but it's counter- productive, he said.   
      
   "Restoration is much more successful when the plants are placed in large   
   dense clumps, when their landscape-forming properties are mimicked, or   
   simply when very large areas are restored in one go," van der Heide said.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   "Following this guidance will allow us to restore lost wetlands at a much   
   larger scale and increase the odds that they will thrive and continue   
   to store carbon and perform other vital ecosystem services for years   
   to come," Silliman said. "The plants win, the planet wins, we all win."   
   Silliman and van der Heide conducted the new study with scientists from   
   the Netherlands' Royal Institute for Sea Research, Utrecht University,   
   Radboud University, the University of Groningen, the University of   
   Florida, Duke University, and Greifswald University.   
      
   By synthesizing data on carbon capture from recent scientific studies,   
   they found that oceans and forests hold the most CO2globally, followed   
   by wetlands.   
      
   "But when we looked at the amount of CO2 stored per square meter, it   
   turned out that wetlands store about five times more CO2 than forests and   
   as much as 500 times more than oceans," says Ralph Temmink, a researcher   
   at Utrecht University, who was first author on the study.   
      
   Funding for the new study came from the Dutch Research Council, the   
   Oak Foundation, Duke RESTORE, the Lenfest Ocean Program, the National   
   Science Foundation, and Natuurmonumenten.   
      
   In addition to his faculty appointment at Duke's Nicholas School,   
   Silliman is director of Duke RESTORE.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by Duke_University. Note: Content may   
   be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Ralph J. M. Temmink, Leon P. M. Lamers, Christine Angelini,   
      Tjeerd J.   
      
         Bouma, Christian Fritz, Johan van de Koppel, Robin Lexmond,   
         Max Rietkerk, Brian R. Silliman, Hans Joosten, Tjisse van der   
         Heide. Recovering wetland biogeomorphic feedbacks to restore the   
         world's biotic carbon hotspots.   
      
         Science, 2022; 376 (6593) DOI: 10.1126/science.abn1479   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220505180918.htm   
      
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