Climate change and wetlands: Vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation, resolutions, and scientific societies

It has been well established that many wetlands are highly vulnerable to climate change, perhaps due to increased intensity of storms and tidal surges, increased temperatures affecting life cycles and physiological processes, changes in rainfall affecting migration patterns, or drier and warmer conditions resulting in droughts and desiccation. Such changes are occurring and can be expected to become more prevalent, and thus will interact cumulatively or synergistically with other adverse impacts on wetlands. Wetlands can also help mitigate climate change through the storage and retention of carbon from the atmosphere. The ability of wetlands to accumulate carbon is well known, as is the release of carbon gases through natural processes. Careful management can minimise the releases and increase the storage. While scientific evidence in support of climate change and its impacts on wetlands has been accumulating, policy responses have not kept pace. Over the past three decades, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has debated the consequences of climate change for wetlands but has largely failed to develop effective guidance for managers to adapt to the anticipated changes. Despite the inertia at the policy level, there is increasing realisation that many existing management measures could be used by wetland managers to contend with the impacts of climate change. At the same time, scientific societies such as the Society of Wetland Scientists have undertaken their own awareness and communication initiatives to assist researchers and practitioners to better engage with the complex issues that have emerged.