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Wetlands and Global Climate Change: A Critical Review |
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Paper Id :
18857 Submission Date :
2024-04-13 Acceptance Date :
2024-04-23 Publication Date :
2024-04-25
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.11384964 For verification of this paper, please visit on
http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/anthology.php#8
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Abstract |
Wetlands
are important ecosystems that provide goods and services of critical importance
to human societies. Wetlands cover 6% of the world land surface and store the
largest share i.e., 12% of the global carbon pool. Global climate change is
recognized as threat to wetlands. The raise temperature, Carbon dioxide levels
and change in precipitation region to cause significant changes in
productivity, biodiversity and nutrient turnover, scenic beauty, ecotourism,
economic and mental health benefits of the Wetlands. This review is presented
with the view of explore strategies for the planning to mitigate the likely
cause of climate change and sustainable management strategy for wetlands.
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Keywords | Wetlands, Climate Change, Biodiversity, Goods and Services. | ||||||
Introduction | Wetlands are the land in transition
between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems where the water table is usually at
or near or above the surface of lands covered by shallow water18.
Wetlands globally encloses 6% of the world land area and contain about 12%
global carbon pool playing an important role in global cycle9,12.
Wetlands “Kidney of earth” provide diverse ecosystem goods and services. For
human beings1,7,8,23. Wetland of many ecosystem services to
humankind, such as food, shelter, water purification, sediment retention,
groundwater recharge, climate mitigation, nutrient cycling, wildlife protection
recreation, scenic beauty and spiritual activities3,11,17,20. |
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Objective of study |
This review paper aims to access the possible responses of a wetland ecosystem to climate change |
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Review of Literature | In recent years, wetlands have been outstandingly affected by human activities and climate change19. Wetland have become one most threatened habitat of the world facing degradation due to expanding human population, Urban and industrial expansion, fossil fuel burning, deforestation, land use change, pollution and climate change13,16. Climate change is recognized as a measure of threat to the survival of species and integrity of ecosystems worldwide. The number of rainy days and total amount of precipitation have decreased due to increase in concentration of greenhouse gasses2. Decreases precipitation will create problem associated with already going demand for water and hence alter the freshwater flow of wetland7, whereas rise temperature can aggregate the Problem of eutrophication, loading of algal bloom, fish leads and dead zones in the surface water10. This proposes a fundamental and acute demand to determine how to shape future wetland restoration initiatives in light of global climate change. |
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Analysis | (i) Provisioning services and climate extremes Provisioning services are the production services that reflect the goods and services produced in the ecosystem. These include provision of food, fish production, wild life, fresh water, fuel, genetic resources and medicines5,19,21. Raising temperature tends coupled with the reduction in rainfall frequency and intensity can profundal effect on wetlands22. The water is limited in different parts of the world due to climate change and rising demands of people14. Pressures on wetlands are probable to be arbitrate through change in hydrology direct and indirect effects of changes in temperature as well as land use change4,9. The climate Change in the future dry years is expected to induce shortage in the availability of surface and groundwater recharge19. During the time of high rainfall, the reservoirs may overflow (producing flood events) and can cause damage to the human and natural system7. (ii) Regulatory services and climate extremes Regulatory services are defined as the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes1. Climate change is recognized as a major threat to regulatory services, such as greenhouse gasses, altering the local and regional temperature precipitation regulation, water hydrology excess of nutrients and pollutants removal sediments retention, control floods and habitat for pollinators5,15,18,19. (iii) Cultural Services and climate extremes Cultural services relate to service people obtain from the ecosystem through recreation, enrichment, beauty, spiritual, reflection and aesthetic values5,6,16. The increase in the frequency and intensity of climatic disasters such as floods, heat waves, drought results the degradation of wetlands reducing their scenic beauty, ecotourism and health benefits1. These climatic extremes also lead to loss of jobs and rural livelihood affecting communities physical, mental and economic health7. |
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Conclusion |
Wetlands are the most useful and important ecosystem for the welfare of human societies for their services. Due to rising global temperature, changes in precipitation regime and elevated carbon dioxide will affect the goods and services of Wetlands. We can do this by pledging wetland refurbishment programs and implementing sustainable ecosystem management plans now as we continue to work on the task of reducing CO2 emission and reversing existing climate change trends. |
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