@techreport{Abdul-Malak2021,

title = {Carbon pools and sequestration potential of wetlands in the European Union},

author = {D. Abdul-Malak and A. I. Marín and M. Trombetti and S. San-Román},

editor = {European Topic Centre on Urban, Land and Soil Systems},

url = {https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-uls/products/etc-uls-reports/etc-uls-report-10-2021-carbon-pools-and-sequestration-potential-of-wetlands-in-the-european-union},

isbn = {978-3-200-07433-0},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-09-01},

urldate = {2021-09-01},

abstract = {Wetland ecosystems as defined by the Ramsar convention host a wide variety of wetland habitats across terrestrial, coastal and marine environments. When in good condition, wetland habitats provide many societal benefits and values, among others, they play a crucial role in the carbon cycle because of their capacities to limit the availability of oxygen to soil microbes and decomposition of organic matter. Policies and practices do not sufficiently consider these interconnections and interdependencies in Europe yet due to the fragmented consideration of this ecosystem in their schemes. The findings of this report argue that healthy European wetland habitats have an enormous capacity to contribute to carbon neutrality objectives in Europe. Across the wide array of European ecosystems they belong to, wetland habitats have a role in contributing to the carbon cycle. The most meaningful European wetland habitats to contribute to carbon storage include well-functioning salt marshes, healthy mires, bogs and fens as well as riparian, fluvial and swamp forests. Furthermore, when healthy, terrestrial wetlands namely mires, bogs and fens (where peatlands underly), followed by riparian, fluvial and swamp forests as well as inland marshes ensure a high carbon sequestration potential. If kept in a good condition or restored, the EU wetland related carbon stock capacity of their overall area in Europe (EU 27 and the UK) is estimated to be between 12 - 31 Gt CO2-eq, corresponding to an overall value ranging between 3 and 8 years of EU GHG emissions1. Whereas the Carbon sequestration potential of healthy EU Wetlands per year is calculated to range between 24 and 144 Mt CO2 eq yr-1 (24,352 and 14,3719 kt CO2 eq yr-1), being a quantity that contributes to “neutralising” between 1 and 4 % of the total GHG emissions registered in the EU27 and the UK (according to 2018 reference year for reported emission). These findings should trigger wetland conservation and restoration to become a high priority for the EU to support reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Climate reporting systems require Parties to report on anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gases which includes reporting heavily modified peatland habitats only partially and dominantly as a net carbon emitter. Using ecosystem-based approaches to managing reported peatland habitats and re-establishing their ecosystem functioning do transform many of them from climate ‘heaters’ (carbon net sources) into climate ‘coolers’ (carbon net sinks).},

keywords = {Climate Change, Ecosystem services, Environmental conservation, Land and soil, Soil functions, Wetlands},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {techreport}

}

@techreport{Maes2021,

title = {EU ecosystem assessment - Summary for policymakers},

author = {J. Maes and M. Erhard and S. Conde and S. Rodriguez-Vallecillo and J.I. Barredo-Cano and M. Paracchini and D. Abdul-Malak and M. Trombetti and O. Vigiak and G. Zulian and A. Addamo and B. Grizzetti and F. Somma and A. Hagyo and P. Vogt and C. Polce and A. Jones and A. Carré and R. Hauser

},

editor = {Publications Office of the European Union},

url = {https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123783},

doi = {10.2760/190829},

issn = {1831-9424},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-06-01},

institution = {Joint Research Center (JRC)},

abstract = {Europe’s ecosystems, on which we depend for food, timber, clean air, clean water, climate regulation and recreation, suffer from unrelenting pressures caused by intensive land or sea use, climate change, pollution, overexploitation and invasive alien species. Ensuring that ecosystems achieve or maintain a healthy state or a good condition is thus a key requirement to secure the sustainability of human activities and human well-being. This guiding principle applies for all ecosystems including marine and freshwater ecosystems, natural and semi-natural areas such as wetlands or heathlands but also managed ecosystems such as forests, farmlands and urban green spaces. Knowledge about ecosystem condition, the factors that improve or decline that condition, and the impacts on ecosystem services, with the benefits they deliver to people, is key to effective management, decision-making and policy design. Such an understanding helps target actions for conservation or restoration and more broadly sustainable use. This ecosystem assessment extends and complements the knowledge we have about the state and trends of ecosystems reported under the EU environmental legislation. The conservation of habitats and species as well as the environmental ambitions on freshwater and marine ecosystems have a well-defined thematic and geographical scope. This assessment goes beyond covering the entire terrestrial and marine territory of the EU and in many cases provides more spatially explicit information. Ecosystems inside and outside protected areas such as coastal and inland wetlands and forests contribute to the wellbeing of people through ecosystem services. Despite their importance, they are often heavily impacted and bringing these systems back in a good condition is a key objective for a more sustainable planet. But also human dominated ecosystems such as farmlands and urban green spaces are important providers of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services and can host remarkable levels of biodiversity that are at the basis of ecosystem services. These ecosystems should not be ignored when considering solutions to bend the curve of biodiversity loss. Consequently, this assessment brings together for the first time EU wide and commonly agreed data sets that can be used to assess the state and trends of ecosystems and their services as well as the pressures and their trends they are exposed to. This is particularly important to understand where and how much ecosystems are degraded and threatened so as to guide priority and cost-effective restoration efforts.},

keywords = {Biodiversity, Conservation and management, Ecosystem, Ecosystem services, Environmental conservation, Forest, Land and soil, Pressures, Protected areas, Wetlands},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {techreport}

}