Side event details

When linked to climate change, wetlands are referred to either their role as carbon absorption and storage, or as ecosystems that are exposed to rising air temperatures and changes in hydrological regime. Wetlands are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to the expected increase in the evaporation rates and precipitation pattern changes. In the official materials of the Ramsar Convention, wetlands can mitigate the effects of climate change only by carbon sequestration. Recommendations for the protection and restoration of wetlands are therefore aimed at supporting the protection of already stored carbon and reducing avoidable carbon emissions.
However, one of the basic but completely neglected functions of wetlands is their ability to influence and create a climate through the process of evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration which transfers hundred watts of solar energy per 1m2 is the most powerful process of solar energy transformation in biosphere is not taught in schools.

Poor knowledge of plants resulting from the phenomenon of „plant blindness“ expressing human ignorance of plants, are significant problems in our society. Harmful landscape management, owing to the low level of human knowledge of plants, leads to an increase in continental drought, increased global CO2 budget, soil erosion, increase in local temperatures, air and water pollution, and a shift towards an arid climate interrupted by torrential rains and climate extremes.

During the event role of water and plants in distribution of solar energy will be explained and shown on data measured by net-radiometer. We show the crucial role of water vapor and clouds in the energy balance of the earth's surface. The subject of further discussion should then be the analysis of how man influences the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere and thus both the amount of incoming solar energy and the greenhouse effect, ie the amount of heat radiated into the sky. On a field experimental site, we show the daily course of surface temperature of physical surfaces and different heights of grass on a clear day. The cooling effect of wetlands is shown on airborne thermal pictures of a river flood plain and harvested meadow. The effect of large scale drainage of wetlands is discussed in terms of the shift from latent heat of water vaporization to sensible heat and the consequences to the local and regional climate.

Methods of education and textbooks for schools will be presented.

Introduction remarks and moderation by ​​​​​​Martina Eiseltová, Centre for Theoretical Study, Charles University

Speakers:

Evapotranspiration - a key process of solar energy transformation and climate creation - Jan Pokorný, Enki, o.p.s., Třeboň, Czech Republic

Storage, Circulation, Precipitation, Cooling - How wetlands and forests water the Earth and cool the planet - David Ellison, LS-SLM, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

Comment on how to promote this concept in Ramsar Convention by Max Finlayson, Charles Sturt University, Australia