A new report from the WWF suggests that the UK’s saltmarshes are a vital part of fighting climate change and need to be protected. A saltmarsh is an area of coastal grassland that is regularly flooded by the ocean. The WWF suggest that these marshes are vital sinks that can lock away greenhouse gases in layers of mud and reduce the effects of climate change. Saltmarshes are estimated to do this 40 times faster than forests.
these marshes are vital sinks that can lock away greenhouse gasses in layers of mud
Saltmarshes are incredibly important to the ecosystem, with the storage of carbon and other gases being just one of their functions. They also act as barriers to erosion and protect communities from flooding, with one study suggesting they reduce the height of damaging waves by nearly 20%. Furthermore, salt marshes are home to vast amounts of biodiversity, including rare plants and thousands of roosting wading birds. The WWF report was put together using previous studies that measured the amount of carbon in the marshlands mud.
However, these environments have been quickly disappearing across both the UK and the world. According to the WWF, between 2000 and 2019, the size of two Singapore’s worth of saltmarshes has disappeared internationally. These marshes are disappearing faster than any other blue carbon ecosystem or forest. Many of these marshes have been lost in the UK due to agriculture. However, there is hope that by recognising the importance of these lands, more effort will be made to restore and protect them.
marshes are disappearing faster than any other blue carbon ecosystem
Tom Brook, the ocean specialist from the WWF, has said that: “Saltmarshes are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the climate with little recognition. They’ve been reduced to a fraction of their former range – but with the right support, we can turn the tide, and we are now seeing a surge in ambition to protect and restore these coastal habitats”. The WWF are now calling for these areas to be added to the UK’s greenhouse gas inventory, which looks at how much carbon is emitted and removed from our atmosphere every year. They hope that this recognition will provide more incentive to restore these lands.
