Garba, S.I., Ebmeier, S.K., Bastin, J.-F. et al. (2 more authors) (2025) Wetland fragmentation associated with large populations across Africa. Nature Communications, 16 (1). 5065. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services in Africa, yet their extent and fragmentation remain poorly understood. Here we classify African wetlands at 10 m resolution, using seasonal composite imagery and a random forest algorithm. We estimate a total wetland area of 947,750 km² (10% of global wetlands), comprising 46% marshes, 25% swamps, 22% peatlands, 5% seasonal wetlands, and 2% mangroves. Wetland fragmentation is strongly associated with high population densities in countries such as Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Egypt, Algeria, and Kenya. African wetlands store an estimated 54 ± 11 Gt of carbon, surpassing Europe’s 12–31 Gt. If drained, they could release 260 MtC yr‾¹, nearly ten times the carbon sequestration of pristine wetlands (27 MtC yr‾¹). These findings provide a crucial foundation for sustainable wetland management and policy development.
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Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Apr 2025 13:42 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jun 2025 08:00 |
Published Version: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59373-2 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-025-59373-2 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:225925 |
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