Colorado wetlands can play a vital role in mitigating climate impacts, but to fully realize their benefits, we must protect remaining intact wetlands and actively restore what has been lost. CNHP Wetland Ecologists were recently featured in an article detailing this important role that our wetlands play, please see the article here. The second photo in this article, taken of CNHP Wetland Ecologists in a high elevation Colorado fen, shows the deep stores of carbon in some wetland soils (The Conversation, Sept. 13, 2018).
Vast stores of carbon have accumulated in wetlands, in some cases over thousands of years. This has reduced atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and methane – two key greenhouse gases that are changing Earth’s climate. If ecosystems, particularly forests and wetlands, did not remove atmospheric carbon, concentrations of carbon dioxide from human activities would increase by 28 percent more each year.
Wetland soil core taken from Todd Gulch Fen at 10,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies. The dark, carbon-rich core is about 3 feet long. Living plants at its top provide thermal insulation, keeping the soil cold enough that decomposition by microbes is very slow. William Moomaw, Tufts University, CC BY-ND
