Wetlands, which include peatlands, marshes, swamps, and coastal wetlands, contain more than 30% of terrestrial soil carbon on only 8% of the Earth’s land surface. Due to their specific biodiversity and ecosystem functions, wetlands act as one of the most important ecosystems for water quality and quantity regulation and for carbon cycling and storage. The accumulation of peats also provides valuable archives of past wetland biomes and regional environmental conditions.
However, in recent years, the areal extent of wetlands is decreasing and wetlands are degraded in large parts of the globe. Moreover, wetlands are sensitive to global change and face many natural and anthropogenic disturbances, such as drainage, global warming, fire, permafrost degradation, land-use change, eutrophication, atmospheric pollution, etc. Ecosystem resilience is the extent of disturbance a system can withstand before shifting into an alternative state (i.e. regime shift or state transition). The resilience of wetland ecosystems and carbon pools to these disturbances is important for wetland conservation, and the resilience concept emerges gradually in public strategies related to wetland management. However, the lack of clear definition and limited data for wetland ecosystems poses challenges to operationalizing resilience, also in the context of disturbance and restoration.
Thus, our purpose is to compile the latest research on wetland biogeochemistry and ecology, particularly disturbance ecology, to better understand wetland resilience. We would like to address these issues in an interdisciplinary manner, to encourage discussion about current and future environmental disturbances of wetland ecosystems. We also hope to contribute to a better interaction of research on paleoecology and current approaches of wetland ecology, using our understanding of wetland's past evolution to better understand its future development.
Potential topics include, but are not limited, to the following:
• Ecosystem regime shifts, resilience, and resistance
• Wetland degradation and restoration
• Wetland biogeochemistry
• Environmental pollution
• Plant succession in wetland and peatland
• Ecohydrological responses to environmental disturbances
• Biological and ecological responses to environmental disturbances
• Carbon capture and storage, effect of climate change on wetlands
We welcome the submission of original research or review articles in different spatial and temporal scales based on laboratory experiments, field observation, paleoecological approaches, and modeling.
Wetlands, which include peatlands, marshes, swamps, and coastal wetlands, contain more than 30% of terrestrial soil carbon on only 8% of the Earth’s land surface. Due to their specific biodiversity and ecosystem functions, wetlands act as one of the most important ecosystems for water quality and quantity regulation and for carbon cycling and storage. The accumulation of peats also provides valuable archives of past wetland biomes and regional environmental conditions.
However, in recent years, the areal extent of wetlands is decreasing and wetlands are degraded in large parts of the globe. Moreover, wetlands are sensitive to global change and face many natural and anthropogenic disturbances, such as drainage, global warming, fire, permafrost degradation, land-use change, eutrophication, atmospheric pollution, etc. Ecosystem resilience is the extent of disturbance a system can withstand before shifting into an alternative state (i.e. regime shift or state transition). The resilience of wetland ecosystems and carbon pools to these disturbances is important for wetland conservation, and the resilience concept emerges gradually in public strategies related to wetland management. However, the lack of clear definition and limited data for wetland ecosystems poses challenges to operationalizing resilience, also in the context of disturbance and restoration.
Thus, our purpose is to compile the latest research on wetland biogeochemistry and ecology, particularly disturbance ecology, to better understand wetland resilience. We would like to address these issues in an interdisciplinary manner, to encourage discussion about current and future environmental disturbances of wetland ecosystems. We also hope to contribute to a better interaction of research on paleoecology and current approaches of wetland ecology, using our understanding of wetland's past evolution to better understand its future development.
Potential topics include, but are not limited, to the following:
• Ecosystem regime shifts, resilience, and resistance
• Wetland degradation and restoration
• Wetland biogeochemistry
• Environmental pollution
• Plant succession in wetland and peatland
• Ecohydrological responses to environmental disturbances
• Biological and ecological responses to environmental disturbances
• Carbon capture and storage, effect of climate change on wetlands
We welcome the submission of original research or review articles in different spatial and temporal scales based on laboratory experiments, field observation, paleoecological approaches, and modeling.