Online
Canada
Wetlands as Fast-Acting and Sustainable Natural Climate Solutions
Dr. Irena Creed
University of Toronto
Natural climate solutions (NCS), such as wetland protection and restoration, offer significant potential to mitigate climate change by sequestering billions of tons of CO₂ globally. Despite this, wetlands are notably absent from Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, highlighting a critical gap in climate reporting. This omission has driven research into wetlands as NCS, emphasizing two primary strategies: retaining intact wetlands to prevent carbon loss and rewetting drained wetlands to restore carbon sequestration capacity. Temperate inland wetlands are promising due to their substantial CO₂ sequestration potential, though their concurrent methane (CH₄) emissions complicate their efficacy as long-term climate solutions.
This study integrates empirical data with process-informed statistical learning models to analyze three decades of carbon fluxes from wetlands across Canada’s agricultural landscapes and forecast their future carbon dynamics under climate change. Findings reveal that intact wetlands sequester carbon at a median rate of 0.6 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, with variability driven by hydrological conditions and human activities in the surrounding catchment. Rewetting drained wetlands significantly boosts carbon sequestration, peaking at 6 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ above baseline rates immediately after restoration, but these gains decline over time, stabilizing within 40 years. However, rewetting also temporarily increases CH₄ emissions, particularly in the initial years, potentially undermining the short-term effectiveness of restored wetlands as NCS. Climatic variability and climate change adds complexity to this dynamic. Considering the overall carbon balance—accounting for CO₂ sequestration and CH₄ emissions in CO₂-equivalent terms—wetlands can act as either carbon sinks or sources, with annual shifts between these states. Over the past 30 years, increasing CH₄ emissions have coincided with even faster rises in carbon sequestration, resulting in a transition from a net carbon source to near neutrality and the potential to act as carbon sinks in the future. These trends, characterized by strong inter-annual variability, underscore the climate-sensitive nature of wetland carbon cycling.
This study highlights the role of wetlands as both short- and long-term NCS, emphasizing the importance of incorporating climate-induced changes into wetland-based climate strategies. Effective policies must balance the benefits of wetland retention and restoration with targeted approaches to mitigate CH₄ emissions, ensuring the long-term viability of wetlands as critical components of global climate solutions.
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