Designing Climate and Water Smart Wetland Restoration Scenarios in Canada's Agricultural Landscapes

在过去的几十年里，无论是在伊利湖和温尼伯这样的大湖，还是在加拿大乃至全球较小的湖泊和水库，藻华的频率和强度都有所增加。这是由于过量的营养物质，如氮和磷，从农业和城市土地用途进入我们的水道而产生的。湿地恢复是过滤过剩养分和保护下游水域的关键自然解决方案。湿地还具有固碳作用，被认为是实现净零排放目标的关键NbS。然而，湿地可能是温室气体的潜在来源。此外，农业景观中的湿地恢复需要农田的转换，这在经济上并不总是可行的。关于湿地恢复作为一种基于自然的解决方案的好处和权衡，知识差距仍然存在。我们项目的总体目标是评估湿地恢复作为改善大草原和伊利湖流域水质和减少温室气体排放的工具的潜力，这两个地区是加拿大两个农业密集型地区，湿地大量流失，水质严重退化。该项目将建立在鸭无限加拿大湿地和水禽研究所现有的合作伙伴关系的基础上，该研究所一直在收集安大略省和草原湿地的水质和温室气体数据。我们将通过有针对性的实地数据收集来补充现有的工作，并结合遥感和过程建模来制定横跨安大略省和大草原的湿地恢复“蓝图”。由此产生的恢复蓝图将帮助决策者确定如何在利用湿地恢复作为改善水质和缓解气候的自然解决方案时实现最大效益，并可用于优先考虑加拿大各地的湿地恢复行动。

The last few decades have seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of algal blooms, both in large lakes like Lake Erie and Winnipeg, as well as in smaller lakes and reservoirs across Canada and globally. These occur in response to excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, that enter our waterways from agricultural and urban land uses. Wetland restoration is a key nature-based solution (NbS) to filter excess nutrients and protect downstream waters. Wetlands also sequester carbon, and are considered to be a key NbS to achieve net-zero emission goals. However, wetlands can be potential sources of greenhouse gasses. Moreover, wetland restoration in agricultural landscapes requires conversion of cropland that might not always be economically viable. Knowledge gaps remain on the benefits and trade-offs of wetland restoration as a nature-based solution. The overarching goal of our project is to evaluate the potential of wetland restoration as a tool for improving water quality and reducing GHG emissions across the prairies and the Lake Erie Basin, which are two agriculturally intensive regions across Canada with extensive wetland loss and severe water quality degradation. The project will build on an existing partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada's Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research who have been collecting water quality and GHG data in wetlands in Ontario and the prairies. We will complement existing efforts with targeted field data collection, and use a combination of remote sensing and process modeling to develop wetland restoration "blueprints" across Ontario and the prairies. The resulting restoration blueprints will help decision-makers to determine how to achieve maximum benefits when utilizing wetland restoration as a nature-based solution for improving water quality and mitigating climate and can be used to prioritize action on wetland restoration across Canada.