Peat bogs are an amazing natural resource storing more CO2 than all the forests of the world combined. In some places though, the greenhouse gas budget of wetlands are negative, with methane and nitrous oxide produced as a byproduct of an environment lacking oxygen.
On today’s World Wetlands Day, a new research centre has launched at the University of Copenhagen to examine the variations. Using satellite imagery and putting scientists on the ground, the Global Wetland Center will provide new insights on wetlands that will help shape their use in tackling climate change.
“We already know that the conservation of natural wetlands overall provides a significant net gain for the greenhouse gas budget,” says Associate Professor Guy Schurgers from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, who heads the new center. “However, one also finds local wetlands where the greenhouse gas budget is negative. This is partly because, due to the lack of oxygen, wetlands have a negative by-product in the form of methane production. Even though it is produced in small quantities, methane is a potent greenhouse gas and it is important that we investigate this mechanism in depth.”
Schurgers says the centre plans to “map the global extent of wetlands” to get a “better idea of exactly what these areas mean for our planet’s climate” with the “help of satellite imagery” boasting resolutions not available even five years ago.
And the researchers will get their feet wet, initially in Vietnam, Tanzania and Norway, as they work to produce data that decision makers can use to make speedy interventions.
“Field studies will allow us to obtain experiment results that are ready to be applied in practice. Therefore, we will also be certain to incorporate local considerations into the design, so that our discoveries can actually be used by agencies and not end up as theoretical exercises,” adds Schurgers.