{"id":52498,"date":"2026-09-17T14:54:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/uncategorized\/restauration-des-zones-humides-cotieres-europeennes-des-benefices-climatiques-a-geometrie-variable\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T14:02:58","slug":"restoring-european-coastal-wetlands-climate-benefits-vary-from-one-context-to-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/publications-en\/restoring-european-coastal-wetlands-climate-benefits-vary-from-one-context-to-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoring European coastal wetlands: climate benefits vary from one context to another"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study published in <\/span>Ecological Engineering<\/span><\/i> sheds light on the effects of coastal wetland restoration on the climate, particularly on carbon dioxide (CO\u2082) and methane (CH\u2084) fluxes \u2014 two greenhouse gases whose exchanges with the atmosphere play an important role in regulating the Earth\u2019s climate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conducted as part of the European<\/span> RESTORE4Cs<\/span><\/a> project, in which Tour du Valat is a partner, the study brought together around fifty researchers across <\/span>six pilot wetlands<\/b> covering a wide range of European ecological contexts: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), the Eastern Scheldt Estuary (Netherlands), the Camargue (France), the Marjal dels Moros (Spain), the Danube Delta (Romania) and the Curonian Lagoon (Lithuania).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Marjal dels Moros, an emblematic example of a Valencian wetland in Spain<\/span><\/span> \u00a9 RESTORE4Cs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over four seasons, the teams simultaneously measured CO\u2082 and CH\u2084 fluxes at preserved, degraded and restored sites using static <\/span>chambers<\/span>. The goal was to determine the extent to which restoration measures, encouraged by European policies, <\/span>translate<\/span> into a measurable climate benefit in <\/span>terms<\/span> of CO\u2082 equivalents (CO\u2082-eq).<\/span><\/p>\n

Results vary depending on the type of gas and wetland<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

CO\u2082 fluxes depend primarily on vegetation cover and the flooding regime at the landscape scale, whilst CH\u2084 emissions respond more sensitively to factors such as water quality, salinity, and hydrological dynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the measures studied, the restoration of seagrass meadows through replanting shows the clearest positive climate signal, with a significant reduction in the CO\u2082-eq. balance, whether the effect of methane is considered over the short term (20 years) or the longer term (100 years). Reducing lagoon eutrophication through improved water treatment also showed a positive effect, but only in the short term (<\/span>over a 20-year horizon<\/span>). <\/span>In contrast, other restoration measures<\/span> modified CO<\/span>2<\/span> and CH<\/span>4<\/span> fluxes in opposing directions<\/span>, with no significant effect on the overall balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Restoration strategies need to be adapted to each context<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

This work provides useful insight for wetland managers: the climate benefits of restoration are neither automatic nor uniform. They depend on the greenhouse gas in question, the type of wetland, and the specific restoration measure undertaken. This makes a case for restoration strategies tailored to each context, and for rigorous monitoring of several greenhouse gases \u2014 particularly CO\u2082 and CH\u2084 \u2014 to accurately detect and quantify potential climate benefits<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) at the Danube Delta site in Romania<\/span> \u00a9 RESTORE4Cs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These results form part of the work <\/span>carried out by <\/span>the European RESTORE4Cs project, which develops knowledge, data, and decision-support tools to support the conservation and restoration of European coastal wetlands. They contribute, in particular, to the<\/span> European Coastal Wetlands Interactive Platform<\/span><\/a> and its<\/span> Decision-Support Toolbox<\/span><\/a>, which enable users to explore the project\u2019s results and support the prioritisation of restoration actions<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Publication reference<\/h3>\n

\ud83d\udcc4 <\/span>Cabrera-Brufau M. et al. 2026. Ecological Engineering 232:108080. <\/span><\/i>doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ecoleng.2026.108080<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study published in Ecological Engineering sheds light on the effects of coastal wetland restoration on the climate, particularly on carbon dioxide (CO\u2082) and methane (CH\u2084) fluxes \u2014 two greenhouse gases whose exchanges with the atmosphere play an important role in regulating the Earth\u2019s climate. Conducted as part of the European RESTORE4Cs project, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1738,"featured_media":52459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[916,1068,1408,776],"class_list":["post-52498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications-en","tag-climate-change","tag-restoration","tag-restore4cs-en","tag-wetlands","country-camargue-en","country-lituanie","country-mediterranean","country-pays-bas-2-en","country-portugal-en","country-roumanie-en","country-spain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1738"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52501,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52498\/revisions\/52501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}