Optimising wetland restoration strategies to minimise methane emissions and maximise carbon uptake

The aim of the WETRES project is to determine the greenhouse gas fluxes from restored wetlands to see how fluxes change if drained and degraded wetlands are restored. Restoring degraded peat soils is an attractive, but largely untested climate change mitigation approach.

Drained peat soils used for agriculture or for peat extraction are often large carbon dioxide sources and will contribute to global warming. Therefore, restoring subsided peat soils to managed, impounded wetlands can turn these sources into carbon sinks.

However, at present, the amount of scientific information available to guide such restoration decisions and assess the impact of these actions is still sparse and restoration outcomes can be low carbon uptake and high methane emissions.

Therefore, the overarching goal of this project is to provide an experimental and theoretical understanding of how to restore wetlands with minimised methane emissions and maximised carbon uptake.

To understand processes that regulate carbon sequestration efficiency and methane fluxes, there is a need to cover fields from the molecular level to the ecosystem level.

To achieve that, multiple drivers, such as site-specific hydrology, legacy effects, soil chemistry, soil microbiology, vegetation development will be analysed in conjunction with greenhouse gas emissions.

This effort directly addresses the European H2020 priorities of sustainable rural development and lower greenhouse gas emissions, which will help to slow down climate change.