📰 Wetland News - February 9, 2025
Your Wetland and Nature-based Solutions briefing.
Wetland & Nature-based Solutions
- Keep up-to-date with the latest wetland and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) news, research and jobs. If you’d like to receive regular updates, please subscribe to this newsletter.
🌍 Reducing air pollution could increase methane emissions from wetlands
Recent studies reveal an intriguing twist in our environmental efforts: reducing air pollution, particularly sulphur, may unintentionally increase methane emissions from wetlands. This is because less sulphur allows more methane-producing microbes to thrive, especially as CO₂ levels rise. It's a delicate balancing act: cleaner air benefits our health and ecosystems, but we must also consider its impact on methane release. This underscores the importance of comprehensive environmental strategies that address multiple facets of climate change.
🌱 Indonesia to restore peatlands and mangroves for major economic potential
Indonesia is focusing on restoring peatlands and mangroves to boost sustainable investment and reduce emissions. These efforts could generate significant carbon trading revenues and economic benefits, particularly from sustainable aquaculture. The country aims to balance environmental protection with economic growth through these restoration projects.
🏘 Beavers return to UK town centre for first time in 400 years
A pair of Eurasian beavers have been released at a nature reserve in Shrewsbury. The project, a partnership between Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Shrewsbury Town Council, is one of a few urban releases in England, and will see the beavers manage and restore the wetland habitat on the 8.5 hectare site. Shrewsbury Town Council, found that traditional methods used to manage the site, such as tree removal and livestock grazing, were no longer sustainable. It is hoped that the beavers will do a better job over the years.
👷♀️ More than 100,000 homes in England could be built in highest-risk flood zones
More than 100,000 new homes could be built on the highest-risk flood zones in England in the next five years as part of the UK government’s push for 1.5m extra properties by the end of this parliament. Building on areas with the highest risk of serious flooding is supposed to be discouraged but a push for housing growth by the government means tens of thousands of new homes could be built in areas likely to flood.
⛄ A third of the Arctic’s vast carbon sink now a source of emissions
A recent study has found a third of the Arctic’s tundra, forests and wetlands have become a source of carbon emissions, as global heating ends thousands of years of carbon storage in parts of the frozen north. For millennia, Arctic land ecosystems have acted as a deep-freeze for the planet’s carbon, holding vast amounts of potential emissions in the permafrost. But ecosystems in the region are increasingly becoming a contributor to global heating as they release more carbon into the atmosphere with rising temperatures.
🚧 Beavers finish seven-year dam project in two days
An absolutely fantastic story here! A colony of beavers in the Czech Republic completed a stalled dam project in just two days, saving the government nearly £1 million. They used their natural skills to build the dams in the same locations planned by humans, creating wonderful wetland habitats to support local wildlife. As one official quoted in the article says: “Beavers always know best.”
💀 Tollund Man - Bog body
If you’ve got a spare five minutes then follow the link to read about one of the best preserved bog bodies ever discovered - Tollund Man. Bog bodies are human remains found in peatlands. The unique properties of the peat prevent decomposition, so the bodies are often intact despite being many hundreds of years old. Found in 1950, in Denmark, Tollund Man was from the Iron Age, about 2,400 years ago, but almost perfectly preserved with even his clothes still intact. Interestingly it’s thought the man, aged around 30-40, was killed as a human sacrifice.
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Get in-touch 📢
If you’d like to get in-touch please follow Dr Christian Dunn on Twitter/X (@christiandunn) or Instagram (@profchristiandunn), or email c.dunn@bangor.ac.uk.
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