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Actual state of European wetlands and their possible future in the context of global climate change

  • Effects of Climate Change on Wetlands
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Abstract

The present area of European wetlands is only a fraction of their area before the start of large-scale human colonization of Europe. Many European wetlands have been exploited and managed for various purposes. Large wetland areas have been drained and reclaimed mainly for agriculture and establishment of human settlements. These threats to European wetlands persist. The main responses of European wetlands to ongoing climate change will vary according to wetland type and geographical location. Sea level rise will probably be the decisive factor affecting coastal wetlands, especially along the Atlantic coast. In the boreal part of Europe, increased temperatures will probably lead to increased annual evapotranspiration and lower organic matter accumulation in soil. The role of vast boreal wetlands as carbon sinks may thus be suppressed. In central and western Europe, the risk of floods may support the political will for ecosystem-unfriendly flood defence measures, which may threaten the hydrology of existing wetlands. Southern Europe will probably suffer most from water shortage, which may strengthen the competition for water resources between agriculture, industry and settlements on the one hand and nature conservancy, including wetland conservation, on the other.

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Notes

  1. This is true, e.g., for Coleanthus subtilis (Tratt.) Seidl, a tiny (3–11 cm tall) annual grass that occurs on the bare or almost bare soils of emerged lake or pond bottoms and shores after its dormant caryopses have survived a long-term flooding of the biotope. The life cycle of the shoots of this grass lasts only 4–6 weeks, and the plants usually flower and fruit in June and July. The reproduction and hence also survival of C. subtilis at each particular site of its occurrence is ensured by a periodical drawdown of the water table at that time of year. One plant can produce over 1,000 ripe caryopses. In Europe, its geographical range of occurrence is narrow, covering only Central Europe and within it especially the basin of Třeboň and adjacent areas in the Czech Republic and Lower Austria. C. subtilis has thus become one of the 434 plant species protected within the EU “Natura 2000” framework (Habitat Directive 92/43, Annex 2). It is also listed in the Red List of threatened plants of the Czech Republic and in the IUCN list of threatened plants. The central area of its European occurrence lacks natural lakes, but is rich in artificial fishponds where the water table can be set at a certain level at any time. For securing permanent occurrence of C. subtilis within this area, agreements have therefore to be made with fishpond owners as to the occasional maintenance of a low water table in the respective fishponds at the optimum of this species’ seasonal development. Such an arrangement can result in a certain loss of the fish crop in a fishpond whose water area is temporarily diminished by the drawdown (summer drainage is not any more a regular part of the fishpond management in Central Europe), and provisions have to be made for a financial compensation of this loss. Obtaining of reliable data on the occurrence of C. subtilis on a certain territory thus requires a period as long as several years. It is advantageous that the protection of C. subtilis at any site brings with itself the protection of the whole rather rare plant community colonizing the emerged pond bottom or shore. For a thorough treatment of the biology and ecology of C. subtilis see, e.g., Hejný (1969).

  2. Let us consider an herbaceous wetland that evaporates 6 l of water per 1 m2 during a summer day. The solar energy consumed in evapotranspiration of 6 l is equal to 4.2 kW (latent heat of 1 l of water = 0.7 kW, or 2.45 MJ). This amount of energy represents an average 24-h flux of about 180 W m−2. Expressed per an area of 5 km2, the latent heat flux equals 900 MW, which is equivalent to the power output of a large electric power station.

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Acknowledgments

Work on this paper was supported by the projects NPV 2B06023 and MSM 6007665801 of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, 526/09/1545 of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic and QH 82078 of the Czech National Agency of Agricultural Research. We warmly thank Hana Šantrůčková for helpful comments on the manuscript, Štěpán Husák for providing the information on Coleanthus subtilis, Václav Nedbal for techical help with the compilation of the map of European wetlands (Fig. 1), Jakub Brom for providing photographs in Fig. 5, and Ondřej Novák for technical help with the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Studentská 13, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Hana Čížková

  2. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jan Květ

  3. Instituto Pirenaico Ecología-CSIC, Av. Montañana 1005, 50192, Zaragoza, Spain

    Francisco A. Comín

  4. Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 7, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Raija Laiho

  5. ENKI, o.p.s., Dukelská 145, 379 01, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Jan Pokorný

  6. Daphne ČR, Institute of Applied Ecology, Dukelská 145, 379 01, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    David Pithart

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  1. Hana Čížková
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  2. Jan Květ
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Correspondence to Jan Květ.

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This article belongs to the Special Issue “Effects of Climate Change on Wetlands”.

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Čížková, H., Květ, J., Comín, F.A. et al. Actual state of European wetlands and their possible future in the context of global climate change. Aquat Sci 75, 3–26 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-011-0233-4

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