Dear Colleagues,

Wetland ecosystems support a very high level of biodiversity and provide important services that help sustain and bring together the natural world and human cultures that share it. These values include supporting a unique and extremely productive habitat used by wildlife as well as humans, flood control, water purification, carbon sequestration, sediment and nutrient retention, and a rich natural heritage that flows into our societal and cultural values. Wetland ecosystems are a vital part of our natural heritage. At a worldwide scale they provide services worth trillions of US dollars every year, entirely free of charge. Thus, wetlands make a clear and vital contribution to human health and well-being.  Due to the ever-increasing impacts of climate change, wetlands have become one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. The effective protection and management of wetlands is urgent and critically important for human sustainable development.

This invited topical feature solicits original and novel papers on the conservation, ecological restoration, and management of wetlands. By combining field investigations, experiments, multidisciplinary management, and ecological models, the invited papers may include an anthology of these. Topics that can be addressed include biodiversity conservation, habitat loss and ecological restoration, biological invasions, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration, and the policy and management considerations surrounding the ongoing sustenance of wetlands within the evolving milieu and context of climate change.

Submissions should be focused on any of a diversity of wetlands ecosystems, including freshwater marsh, salt marsh, swamp, peatland, mire, mangrove, carr, pocosin, floodplain, vernal pool, estuary, coastal and littoral habitats, and other related settings. We are particularly interested in manuscripts within the following fields:

(1) Status, management and policies relevant to biodiversity conservation in wetlands;

(2) Introduction, distribution, and ecological impacts of non-native species in wetlands;

(3) Physiological activity of organisms (fishes, aquatic plants, crayfish, benthos organism, insects, and so forth) as influenced by global climate change or environmental pollutants;

(4) Educational, management, and policy approaches to wetland preservation;

(5) Mitigation, habitat creation and ecological restoration of wetlands;

(6) Biological control of microbial, fish, and insect in aquaculture, agriculture, wetland, and natural resource;

(7) Policy and management of tourism management in wetlands.

References

Hu SJ, Niu ZG, Chen YF, Li LF (2017) Global wetlands: potential distribution, wetland loss, and status. Science of the Total Environment 586: 319-327.

Tickner D, Opperman JJ, Abell R et al. (2020) Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: an emergency recovery plan. Bioscience 70: 330-342.

Albert JS, Destouni G, Duke-Sylvester Sm et al. (2020) Scientists’ warning to humanity on the freshwater biodiversity crisis. Ambio 50: 85-94.

Dr. Wen Xiong
Dr. Peter A. Bowler
Dr. Zhongxin Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• wetlands
• climate change
• protection
• policy
• management