Amid Heart Morass revival in Gippsland, RMIT reveals wetlands climate benefits
Gippsland local and duck-hunting enthusiast Gary Howard began restoring the large wetland wedged between the Thomson and Latrobe rivers in 2006.
So began the journey for Mr Howard and his friends to conserve the ecosystem at Heart Morass.
"The Heart wasn't in a very good condition," he said.
"It was just coming out of the millennium drought, which was very severe."
A new study by RMIT supports what people like Mr Howard have seen firsthand.
RMIT's Centre for Nature Positive Solutions has found that restored floodplain wetlands, including the Heart Morass, can slash carbon emissions by 39 per cent within a year and without the methane spike in other types of wetland restoration.
By comparison, net carbon emissions from unrestored control wetlands increased by 169 per cent in the same period.
The report's lead author, Lukas Schuster, says wetlands are emerging as unlikely climate allies.
"That's how we can actually mitigate climate change, by taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away.
"Basically, within one year we see massive benefits of carbon emissions reduction, which we don't usually see in other wetlands."
But carbon is just part of the story.
The research at 12 degraded sites along the Loddon River in Kerang, north-central Victoria, also showed restored wetlands retained more water — 55 per cent more than before.
The higher soil moisture levels, even after drying, increased drought resilience in the wetlands and associated areas.
"If the wetlands are staying wetter much longer to retain more moisture during summer, you don't have dry vegetation and the dry soil that can promote fires," Dr Schuster said.
At the same time, healthy wetlands also help reduce flooding by absorbing water more easily.
While the Heart Morass is thriving, Mr Howard fears for other wetlands across Gippsland.
"In the near future, some of these wetlands with salt intrusion are going to become desert," he said.
"Once we lose the vegetation, the next thing that we experience, particularly around the lake shore, is erosion."
He's seen the damage — growing up, he often visited Marlay Point near Lake Wellington in Gippsland, where he could climb from the shore into a big tree on the water's edge.
"That tree is now probably 200 metres in the lake, that is how much it has eroded in my time," he said.
Dr Schuster says that's why this research is so important.
"Australia has a lot of freshwater wetlands," he said.
"Most wetlands are degraded, which means they don't have this flood and drought mitigation potential at the moment, because they can't really take up water or release it during droughts."
One challenge is the cost of making this research a widespread tool.
"The [restoration] may need government funding or some incentives to restore and get the water into the property and maintaining that water flow," Dr Schuster said.
And sourcing water for the restoration is not difficult.
"Luckily, a floodplain or a wetland means they are connected to a river, so it's about reopening those channels."
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