A Wet Bomb!

Wetlands, which contain an estimated 771 gigatonnes (771 billion tonnes) of greenhouse gases -- both CO2 and more potent methane, are in news as 700 experts from 28 nations meet at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference in the city of Cuiaba on the edge of South America's vast Pantanal, the largest wetland of its kind.

The concern is that evaporation and ongoing destruction of world wetlands, which hold a volume of carbon similar to that in the atmosphere today, could cause them to exhale billows of greenhouse gases.

If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, coordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Program in Brazil. He said:

"We could call it the carbon bomb.....

Humanity in many parts of the world needs a wake-up call to fully appreciate
the vital environmental, social and economic services wetlands provide --
absorbing and holding carbon, moderating water levels, supporting biodiversity
and countless others."

Prof. Junk, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology shares:

Wetlands act as sponges and their role as sources, reservoirs and regulators of water is largely underappreciated by many farmers and others who rely on steady water supplies. They also cleanse water of organic
pollutants, prevent downstream flood inundations, protect riverbanks and
seashores from erosion, recycle nutrients and capture sediment.

The US will spend $700 million over two decades to revive the Florida Everglades. It will include six artificial wetlands ("storm water treatment areas"), to receive and cleanse excess nutrients from neighbouring farm districts.
Sources:

• United Nations University (2008, July 21). Massive Greenhouse Gases May Be Released As Destruction, Drying Of World Wetlands Worsen. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/07/080720150209.htm
• http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1745905120080720