Ecological impacts of droughts - wetlands

• Wetlands

  An area of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt.
• Key functions

  • Cover almost one tenth of the land area of Earth
  • Provide an estimated $27 trillion in benefits to humanity per year
  • Act as temporary water stores within the hydrological cycle
  • Reduce the need to mitigate floods downstream
  • Protect against erosion and recharge aquifers
  • High biological productivity an support a diverse food web
  • Provide resources (fish, fuelwood etc)
• Examples of human destruction


  • 2.5m square kilometres have been destroyed
  • USA and Europe have used these areas for urbanisation and agriculture
  • Water transfer schemes
  • e.g. Jonglei Canal Project - has diverted the Nile discharge away from the Sudd Swamp to the dry areas of South Sudan
  • Marshland of southern Iraq destroyed by dams on the Tigris and Euphrates, substantially reducing their flow