Speaker
Description
Our planet is nowadays experiencing an unprecedented situation of accelerated climate change linked to the exacerbated anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Additional to the natural biogeochemical exchanges between the biosphere and the atmosphere, the huge increase of GHG fluxes deriving from fuel burning has produced a sharp increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, but also of other GHG such as CH4 and N2O, which are very much related to biogenic activities. Undoubtfully, anthropogenic GHG emissions need to be drastically reduced to net zero emissions, but further to fuel burning emissions, the focus needs also to be set on the way ecosystems work biogeochemically, as this can strongly influence its role in climate change mitigation or, instead, in its enhancement.
Due to the presence of water, wetlands are among the most biogeochemically active ecosystem types on Earth, enabling them to manage with huge amounts of GHG. Several natural factors, such as the hydrology, water salinity, inorganic and organic nutrients availability, among others, regulate the carbon and GHG exchange between these ecosystems and the atmosphere. Basic research on the carbon cycle has provided the foundational knowledge to interpret not only how these natural factors are determining the role of different types of wetlands in increasing or reducing the GHG concentrations in the atmosphere, but also how and which way the alteration of these characteristics by anthropogenic impacts causes changes in its climate regulatory capacity. As a general pattern, ecologically degraded wetlands may enhance climate change mainly because of the alteration-related increase in the emissions of the GHG with higher radiative forcing capacity, CH4 and N2O. Instead, healthy wetlands can help in climate change mitigation when minimising the emissions levels of both GHG.
Here we jump from basic research to societal contributions of science. Since healthy wetlands may act as climate allies, the use of appropriate management measures and ecosystem’s restoration aiding to enhance their climate change mitigation role needs to be based on sound scientific foundations. But we, as scientists, also need to adapt our research questions in order to target humankind needs to preserve our common home, The Earth. Furthermore, policies, such as those dealing with biodiversity conservation, climate, and any other type of policy (for example, the EU Nature Restoration, the EU climate policy, and the EU Common Agriculture Policy), must be linked in such a way that, apart of their own specific targets, they can jointly contribute to human efforts to face climate change. In this talk I show a workflow to scale-up from the basic biogeochemical research to effective climate change mitigation by wetland ecosystems while also enhancing other ecosystem services, in benefit of humankind wellness and a healthy planet.