I was driving through a nature reserve in Lower Saxony recently and noticed there's way less water there than there was a few years ago. An acquaintance of mine says it's because of the drought, but I don't get why wetlands are hit so hard in particular. Does that affect climate protection too?
Peatlands store water like a sponge, and when there's less rain or it gets warmer, they dry out faster than other landscapes - that's just the nature of peatlands. On top of that, many peatlands in Germany were historically drained for agriculture, and these drainage ditches speed up water loss even more. That's actually a major climate problem because dry peatlands start to decompose and release massive amounts of CO2 instead of storing it the way an intact peatland does.
Did you happen to notice whether there were ditches or channels dug in the area? That's often the actual problem - historically, wetlands were heavily drained to use them for agriculture, and these artificial water drainage systems are still active today. The dryness definitely makes things worse, but without this drainage, wetlands would handle dry periods much better. And yeah, it has huge effects on the climate: intact wetlands store an incredible amount of carbon, and as soon as they dry out, it escapes as CO₂ and methane.
Dryness is indeed a major factor, but the core problem often goes back decades: in most German bogs, drainage systems were installed that actively pump water away - and many of them are still running today. When there's less rainfall, bogs can't regenerate at all because water is literally being pumped out from under them. This is bad for the climate because dry bogs release huge amounts of CO2 instead of storing it.
On your next visit to a nature reserve, you can keep an eye out specifically for these drainage ditches - if you spot them, you'll know that rewetting would be the most important tool there. Some areas are now being deliberately reflooded to save the bogs.
Whether the water levels there dropped throughout the year or just in summer/autumn?
The thing is: wetlands are indeed extremely vulnerable, but not just because of drought. What the others have already hinted at is crucial - many wetlands in Lower Saxony were literally destroyed historically through drainage and water removal. That means the water table was artificially lowered to make use of the land. When you then have less rain on top of that or evaporation increases, the whole system collapses. An intact wetland could handle drought better because it has deep water storage - but a lot of German wetlands simply aren't intact anymore.
And yeah, it's a real climate problem. Wetlands are massive carbon stores - when they dry out, they release CO2 and methane instead of binding it. That's why there are now rewetting projects where people try to restore wetlands. It's not just important for nature, but also for climate protection. Next time you drive by, check if there are any rewetting measures - sometimes they look "wild," but that's intentional.
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