Wetlands are key environmental sentinels. These systems offer a plethora of ecosystem services, acting as biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks while providing natural buffers against the impacts of climate change.
They also benefit our society by ensuring food security, providing clean water, and protecting coastal communities. In fact, they support more than one billion livelihoods worldwide, as well as 40% of all known plant and animal species.
However, in our rapidly changing world, we face a series of complex, overlapping challenges. To address the ongoing loss of wetlands, new, interdisciplinary solutions are needed that match the scale of the problem.
A Special interdisciplinary resource
In response to these challenges, a new special issue in Nature Conservation titled ‘Wetlands in a Changing Climate: Restoring Coasts and Floodplains,’ aims to bridge critical knowledge gaps, highlight the vital importance of wetland ecosystems, and identify ways to upscale restoration action under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.
Edited by Ute Susanne Kaden, Sophia Schmid, Simone Wulf, Katrina Marsden, Carla Klusmann, Aletta Bonn, Klement Tockner and Mathias Scholz, the Special Issue includes 15 peer-reviewed articles with contributions from over 100 European experts across 18 countries. You can read the full editorial here.
Adopting a ‘source-to-sea’ approach, the collection bridges the gap between riverine and coastal research to foster integrated responses to environmental pressures. Its findings are organized into four key thematic sections:
- Section I: Wetland biodiversity in a changing climate: Understanding their vulnerability
- Section II: Wetland ecosystem services and nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Section III: Wetland restoration in practice: Opportunities, overcoming barriers and scaling up implementation
- Section IV: Wetland policy: Enabling a transition towards a resilient future
By synthesizing perspectives from science, policy, and practice across Europe, this collection serves as a transdisciplinary “guide for anyone seeking an integrated understanding of the unique role of European riverine and coastal wetlands in the context of climate change and biodiversity,”.
While the primary scope is from Europe, these findings offer vital insights applicable to restoration efforts worldwide.
For me, riverine and coastal wetlands are vivid examples of how biodiversity, climate, and human well-being depend on one another, yet they often remain out of the spotlight – making their protection and restoration all the more important. This Special Issue brings together accessible science, practical experience, and policy perspectives, and we hope it will help spark real – and urgently needed – progress in restoring Europe’s coasts and floodplains.
comments Dr. Ute Kaden, one of the lead authors of this Special Issue.
This Special Issue builds on the 5th European Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change (Bonn, 2023), a collaborative effort organized by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies (ENCA), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and adel-phi.
Connecting the research and people
Beyond the Special Issue itself, the lead editors organised a free online launch event to present the valuable collection of research publications. On Thursday, 26 February, over 300 participants gained insights into the vulnerability and resilience of riverine and coastal wetlands.
The discussion centered on evaluating the multifunctional benefits of nature-based solutions, sharing restoration lessons from across Europe, and identifying key opportunities аnd challenges in scaling up wetland restoration actions.
Addressing biodiversity climate nexus is important – biodiversity loss and climate change are interconnected and we must strengthen their relationship to develop effective responses to both challenges.
Dr. Kim Grutzmacher, Head of Division International Nature Conservation, BfN
During the launch event, Dr. Flore Lafaye de Micheaux, European Senior Advisor at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, reflected on how the importance of wetlands extends beyond their ecosystem value.
Wetlands have been part of human existence since the dawn of time, not only because they have provided for our basic needs, but also because they are places of meaning, culture and spirituality. Our message is that it’s time to invest in wetlands as this means investing in future.
Dr. Flore Lafaye de Micheaux, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Research from four major projects, BioAgora, Respin, SpongeBoost, and Rest-Coast, was showcased during the launch event. As an active consortium member in these projects, Pensoft contributes essential expertise in science communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement, and technological development.
Notably, the lead authors Dr. Kaden (UFZ) and Dr. Scholz (who also serves as the coordinator of SpongeBoost) presented insights from Sections I and II of the new Special Issue. Comprising eight papers from the SpongeBoost consortium, the research tackles pressing ecological challenges, ranging from nutrient retention and floodplain services to the socio-economic valuation of nature-based solutions and the intricacies of EU policy.
Wetland restoration involves human-nature relationships, and wetlands should be treated treated as a social ecological system.
Dr. Mathias Scholz, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
In this Special Issue, you will find in-depth analyses such as the work of Ibáñez et al., 2026, which asks ‘To what extent is coastal wetland biodiversity endangered by climate change? How can we boost the resilience of coastal ecosystems?’ Their research highlights the dual threat of “coastal squeeze” and climate change on Mediterranean wetlands.
Shifting the focus to inland waters, the issue also features ‘Building blocks for upscaling freshwater ecosystem restoration: Place-based strategies for a transdisciplinary challenge’ by Birk et al. (2026). Drawing on 18 European case studies from the MERLIN project, this research identifies five essential ‘building blocks’ necessary to successfully upscale freshwater restoration efforts.”
Full list of the articles in the Special Issue:
- Restoring coasts and floodplains – Conclusions and recommendations for enabling action across science, policy, and practice by Kaden et al., 2026
- Towards effective and integrated riparian wetland monitoring in Europe: challenges and opportunities by Cvijanović et al., 2026
- Nature-based solutions with sponge functions: socio-economic importance and valuation by Macháč et al., 2026
- Wetlands in the EU policy context by Klusmann et al., 2026
- Challenges and opportunities in restoring European free-flowing rivers by Stoffers et al., 2026
- European riverine and coastal wetlands under pressure: biodiversity and climate change by Kaden et al., 2026
- Conservation planning for riverine biodiversity under changing climate: use of models by Fink et al., 2026
- Case studies from Germany and Scotland indicate climate change mitigation potential of riverine and coastal wetlands by Ludewig et al., 2026
- Building blocks for upscaling freshwater ecosystem restoration: Place-based strategies for a transdisciplinary challenge by Birk et al., 2026
- Cultural practices in European riverine floodplains: formation, typology, co-decline of biocultural diversity, and emerging drivers of conservation and sustainable management by Wantzen et al., 2026
- To what extent is coastal wetland biodiversity endangered by climate change? How can we boost the resilience of coastal ecosystems? by Ibáñez et al., 2026
- Floodplains and coastal wetlands as nutrient sinks: a restoration perspective by Zak et al., 2026
- Bridging protected areas along the Danube by Kmetova-Biro et al., 2026
- Assessing ecosystem services across scales to support nature-based solutions in river floodplains: a review of non-monetary tools by Stammel et al., 2026
- Managed re-alignment: a multifaceted approach in ecological restoration of coastal floodplains by de la Vega-Leinert et al., 2026
- Does the Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027 support the restoration of freshwater ecosystems? by Rouillard et al., 2026
- Restoring coasts and floodplains – Conclusions and recommendations for enabling action across science, policy, and practice by Kaden et al., 2026
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The development of the issue was supported by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety(BMUKN) (Project No. 3521830200).
