A new study published in Nature addresses a major obstacle to climate-aware restoration policy: the absence of a continent-wide, high-resolution picture of where wetlands are, what types they are, and how disturbed they have become. Led by researchers at the Global Wetland Center at the University of Copenhagen, the work aims to make wetland restoration targets measurable and actionable across Europe.

“To meet wetland restoration targets, we need a high-resolution map showing their extent, the different types, and what is disturbing them today,” says lead author Gyula Máté Kovács. He emphasizes that without such insight, it is difficult to assess wetlands’ true climate impact—especially where restoration potential is greatest.

Using 10-meter satellite imagery and machine learning, the team produced an open-access digital product called European Wetland Types. The map classifies six categories of natural and semi-natural wetlands across 38 European countries, enabling consistent, cross-border comparisons of wetland extent and condition.

The researchers highlight that Europe’s wetlands are highly fragmented. Roughly 27–33% occur in contiguous areas smaller than 25 hectares, and 7–11% are found in patches under 1 hectare. Because many existing datasets are too coarse, the smallest wetlands may be systematically missed—reducing the accuracy of restoration planning and carbon risk assessments.

Across the mapped region, about one fifth of wetlands are highly affected by human activity. Inland marshes emerge as among the most disturbed, while peatlands are flagged as a top priority for climate benefits due to their strong capacity to store soil carbon.

However, the stakes extend beyond biodiversity. The study estimates that up to five billion tonnes of CO₂-equivalent soil carbon may have been released compared with a scenario where these wetlands remained undisturbed—an amount comparable to roughly 1.5 years of total EU CO₂ emissions.

Built to support implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Law, the map helps member states identify restoration candidates and estimate likely climate outcomes. By harmonizing how wetlands are defined across countries, it also allows EU institutions to evaluate reporting on a comparable basis.

The team is now extending the approach to develop a global version of the map, with the goal of improving worldwide estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from wetlands and guiding restoration strategies at larger scales.

Subject of Research: Wetland distribution, fragmentation, condition, and restoration potential across Europe
Article Title: Highly fragmented European wetlands with uneven restoration needs
News Publication Date: 15-Jul-2026
Web References: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10760-9 ; https://ee-gmkovacs.projects.earthengine.app/view/european-wetland-types
References: Nature (2026), study DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10760-9
Image Credits: Not provided

Keywords

Wetlands, peatlands, satellite mapping, machine learning, carbon sinks, greenhouse gas emissions, EU Nature Restoration Law, biodiversity restoration, habitat fragmentation, 10m resolution

The work focuses on two Annex I habitat groups: inland peat-forming wetlands (Group 7: “Raised bogs, mires and fens”) and coastal lagoons (habitat type 1150). By translating complex ecology into actionable monitoring concepts, the report is designed to inform condition assessments under the Habitats Directive, the Water Framework Directive, and the Nature Restoration Regulation.

Europe’s wetland story, however, is one of dramatic contraction. An estimated 80% of wetland area present a century ago no longer exists, and more than half of remaining peatlands have been drained. Despite their limited geographic footprint, peatlands store nearly one-third of global soil carbon, while coastal lagoons—covering roughly 13% of the global coastline—support disproportionately high biodiversity and biological productivity.

At the center of the report is a unifying conclusion: hydrology is the principal determinant of ecosystem condition. In peatlands, persistently high and stable water tables maintain anoxic conditions that suppress decomposition, enabling peat to accumulate. When drainage lowers the water table, peat oxidizes, subsides, and compacts, vegetation and microbial communities shift, and wildfire risk rises.

Crucially, structural changes to peat can be effectively irreversible. What begins as hydrological disruption can also flip a long-term carbon sink into a net source of greenhouse gases. Coastal lagoons face a different hydrological challenge: freshwater–marine exchange. There, circulation patterns, sediment transport, nutrient availability, and physico-chemical gradients shape community structure and productivity—often with strong natural variability unrelated to direct human pressure.

The report also emphasizes that degradation rarely comes from a single culprit. Drainage, land-use conversion, nutrient enrichment, peat extraction, contaminant inputs, coastal development, and climate change interact in reinforcing, sometimes non-linear ways. This pressure stacking can make ecological decline difficult to detect, attribute, and reverse.

To improve monitoring, the authors argue that no single indicator can capture ecosystem health. Instead, they propose tiered indicator frameworks separating essential from complementary variables across hydrological, physico-chemical, biological, and functional dimensions. Natural spatial and temporal variability—and ecological succession—must be explicitly accounted for, or monitoring may confuse intrinsic dynamics with human impact.

The report further calls for integrating Earth Observation with in-situ measurements. Remote sensing is best suited for hydrology and vegetation-linked metrics, but it must be field-calibrated and validated to maintain scientific reliability. Finally, it outlines a transition toward an integrated observation architecture combining Earth Observation, ground data, numerical modelling, and digital twin approaches.

This roadmap includes a dual monitoring strategy: standardized routine surveillance to capture heterogeneity and adaptive event-based monitoring for extremes and unexpected impacts. The authors frame the approach as a scientific foundation for a future EU Wetland Watch service, while identifying the next critical step—habitat-specific condition thresholds calibrated across Member States.

Subject of Research: Ecological characterisation of European peatlands and coastal lagoons for EU wetland assessment, monitoring, and restoration.
Article Title: Ecological characterisation of peatlands and coastal lagoons in Europe
News Publication Date: 2026
Web References: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC146927
References: Cetinic, K.A., Pérez-Ruzafa, Á., Boix, D., Cravo-Laureau, C., Klimkowska, A., et al, Ecological characterisation of peatlands and coastal lagoons in Europe, Blasi, M., Korcheva, A., Vasilakopoulos, P. and Velasco Gomez, D.M. (editors), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2026, JRC146927.
Image Credits: Not provided.

Keywords: peatlands; coastal lagoons; hydrology; wetland loss; Habitats Directive; Water Framework Directive; Earth Observation; ecological indicators; biodiversity; carbon storage