The Swamp in OSU’s Backyard

When the climate change conversation turns to storing carbon emissions in plant materials, people tend to think about forests and other large, often woody plants. But some researchers have found that wetlands, which are often more commonly known as marshes and swamps, may be much more effective in storing atmospheric carbon in its inactive forms.

Dr. William J. Mitsch, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environment & Natural Resources at the Ohio State University, has been studying wetlands across the world for more than thirty years, and his research results suggest that, in a freshwater wetland like Old Woman Creek in Huron, Ohio, the accumulation of carbon in the soil alone adds up to a substantial amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere. “We had an average wetland like Old Woman Creek with about 140 grams of carbon per square meter per year,” Mitsch says. “That’s a good number, that’s high.”