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The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration1 and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological2 scientists said.
Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.
If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, coordinator3 of the Pantanal Regional Environment Program in Brazil.
Wetlands are not just swamps: they also include marshes4, peat bogs5, river deltas6, mangroves, tundra7, lagoons8 and river flood plains.
Together they account for 6 percent of Earth's land surface and store 20 percent of its carbon. They also produce 25 percent of the world's food, purify water, recharge aquifers9 and act as buffers10 against violent coastal11 storms.
As the globe warms, water from wetlands is likely to evaporate; rising sea levels could change wetlands' salinity12 or completely inundate13 them.
In addition, northern wetlands, where permanently14 frozen soil locks up billions of tons of carbon, are most at risk from climate change because warming is forecast to be more extreme at high latitudes15, said Eugene Turner of Louisiana State University, a participant in the conference.
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1 dehydration | |
n.脱水,干燥 | |
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2 ecological | |
adj.生态的,生态学的 | |
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3 coordinator | |
n.协调人 | |
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4 marshes | |
n.沼泽,湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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5 bogs | |
n.沼泽,泥塘( bog的名词复数 );厕所v.(使)陷入泥沼, (使)陷入困境( bog的第三人称单数 );妨碍,阻碍 | |
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6 deltas | |
希腊字母表中第四个字母( delta的名词复数 ); (河口的)三角洲 | |
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7 tundra | |
n.苔原,冻土地带 | |
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8 lagoons | |
n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 );潟湖;(大湖或江河附近的)小而浅的淡水湖;温泉形成的池塘 | |
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9 aquifers | |
n.地下蓄水层,砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 ) | |
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10 buffers | |
起缓冲作用的人(或物)( buffer的名词复数 ); 缓冲器; 减震器; 愚蠢老头 | |
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11 coastal | |
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的 | |
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12 salinity | |
n.盐分;咸度;盐浓度;咸性 | |
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13 inundate | |
vt.淹没,泛滥,压倒 | |
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14 permanently | |
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地 | |
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15 latitudes | |
纬度 | |
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