Stress factors such as climate change and drought may switch the role of temperate wetlands such as peatlands from carbon dioxide sinks to sources, leading to positive feedback on global climate change. Water level management has been regarded as an important climate change mitigation strategy as it can sustain the natural net CO2 sink function of a wetland.
WATERAGRI partners from Lund University assessed the effect of climate change on the CO2 exchange of south Swedish temperate peatlands, which were either unmanaged or subject to water level regulation. The results showed that all managed and unmanaged systems under future climate scenarios could serve as CO2 sinks throughout the experimental period.