Restoring small water bodies to improve lake and river water quality in China.

Climate change, population growth, and agricultural intensification are increasing nitrogen (N) inputs, while driving the loss of inland water bodies that filter excess N. However, the interplay between N inputs and water body dynamics, and its implications for water quality remain poorly understood. Analyzing data from 1995 to 2015 across China, here, we find a 71% reduction in the area of small (<10 m) water bodies (SWB), primarily in high-N-input agricultural regions.

Managing the Global Wetland Methane-Climate Feedback: A Review of Potential Options.

Methane emissions by global wetlands are anticipated to increase due to climate warming. The increase in methane represents a sizable emissions source (32-68 Tg CH year greater in 2099 than 2010, for RCP2.6-4.

Restored forested wetland surprisingly resistant to experimental salinization.

Salinization of coastal freshwater wetlands is an increasingly common and widespread phenomenon resulting from climate change. The ecosystem consequences of added salinity are poorly constrained and highly variable across prior observational and experimental studies. We added 1.

Size and temperature drive nutrient retention potential across water bodies in China.

Lentic water bodies, including lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands, retain excess nutrients in runoff from agricultural and urban activities, and protect downstream water bodies from eutrophication. To develop effective nutrient mitigation strategies, it is important to understand the controls on nutrient retention in lentic systems and what drives variability between different systems and geographical regions. Efforts to synthesize water body nutrient retention at the global scale are biased toward studies from North America and Europe.

Rapid deforestation of a coastal landscape driven by sea-level rise and extreme events.

Climate change is driving ecological shifts in coastal regions of the world, where low topographic relief makes ecosystems particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise, salinization, storm surge, and other effects of global climate change. The consequences of rising water tables and salinity can penetrate well inland, and lead to particularly dramatic changes in freshwater forested wetlands dominated by tree species with low salt tolerance. The resulting loss of coastal forests could have significant implications to the coastal carbon cycle.

Succession, regression and loss: does evidence of saltwater exposure explain recent changes in the tree communities of North Carolina's Coastal Plain?

Background And Aims: Coastal plant communities globally are highly vulnerable to future sea-level rise and storm damage, but the extent to which these habitats are affected by the various environmental perturbations associated with chronic salinization remains unclear. In this study, we examine the relationship between North Carolina wetland tree community composition and basal area change and indicators of salinization such as soil salt ion content and elevation.

Methods: We surveyed 34 forest plots in forested, freshwater wetlands across the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula.