The extent and drivers of global wetland loss

Murray, Nicholas J.

doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00268-x

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08 February 2023

The extent and drivers of global wetland loss

An impressive combination of modelling and data analysis has enabled a new estimate of the extent of wetland losses over the past few centuries — and reveals that an area about the size of India has been lost since 1700.

Nicholas J. Murray ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4008-3053⁰

Nicholas J. Murray
1. Nicholas J. Murray is at the College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
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Wetland ecosystems provide essential services that have supported human communities worldwide for thousands of years. Yet, owing to their proximity to reliable water sources, rich soils and typically flat topographies, wetlands have often been drained or repurposed so that the land can be used for human objectives¹ (Fig. 1) — most notably, in pursuit of productive agricultural land and to accommodate growing urban populations². The history of these environmentally devastating transformations is so long that developing an accurate global picture of the long-term extent of wetland loss has been exceptionally difficult. Writing in Nature, Fluet-Chouinard et al.³ provide a comprehensive estimate.

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Nature 614, 234-235 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00268-x

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