Climate mitigation of tidal and riverine wetland restoration (Sigmaplan)

Tidal and riverine wetlands are highly valued ecosystems, among others for nature-based climate mitigation through the sequestration of CO2 into carbon in the wetland vegetation and wetland soil. However, many wetland areas have been historically converted in human land use, leading to the loss of the CO2 sequestration function. Nowadays, projects are carried out to (re-)create tidal and non-tidal wetlands, such as in the Schelde river basin (Belgium, Flanders) through the Sigmaplan (https://www.sigmaplan.be/en). Yet it remains to be proven how efficient such newly created wetlands are for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, as they can be a sink for CO2 but also a potential source for CH4 and/or N2O. This project investigates the carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas balance across different types of tidal and non-tidal wetland restoration projects located in the Schelde river basin. It is based on a combination of (1) field measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes using flux chambers, (2) field sampling and lab analyses to quantify rates of carbon sequestration into soils and vegetation, and (3) geospatial upscaling of results to estimate the carbon and greenhouse gas balance of created wetlands across the Schelde river basin.

Keywords:CARBON SEQUESTRATION, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, WETLANDS

Disciplines:Biogeochemistry, Carbon sequestration science

Project type:Collaboration project