Peatlands across Europe are losing their ability to purify drinking water, regulate floods, and store carbon as the water table beneath them drops. The problem is that different types of peatlands—shaped by climate, geology, and human use—respond differently to drought and warming. Current models treat them as uniform, so predictions of how they will behave under climate change are unreliable. ECO-WADE will map the links between groundwater depth and three key services: water purification (removing excess nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural runoff), water regulation (storing water during droughts and slowing flood peaks), and climate regulation (locking away carbon instead of releasing greenhouse gases). If the research succeeds, water companies and land managers could predict which peatlands are most vulnerable and prioritise restoration efforts. Better understanding of water table dynamics would also improve national carbon accounting and flood risk planning. This is applied environmental science with direct relevance to water treatment infrastructure, climate mitigation strategies, and catchment management—systems that quietly underpin drinking water supplies and flood protection across Europe.
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Wetlands are integral aquatic ecosystems at the intersection of groundwater, surface water and terrestrial surfaces. Peatlands are terrestrial wetlands that stand out in their significance to provide valuable aquatic ecosystem services, benefiting both society and nature. Climate, hydrogeology, hydrological and topographical positioning within the landscape and human use of peatlands together shaped a diverse range of peatland types and functioning within Europe. Consequently, there exists a distinct diversity in the ecosystem services these peatlands provide, including improved water quality for drinking water purposes. Despite these differences, common to all peatland types is that these ecosystem services are closely linked to the dynamics and spatial patterns of groundwater, i.e. water table depth (WTD), and thereby the degree of water saturation within these peatlands. Climate change is considered a major threat to peatlands' functioning and ecosystem service provisioning where temperature increases and WTD extremes weaken ecosystem resilience. ECO-WADE will focus on three key aquatic ecosystem services of peatlands: 1) Water purification: Peatlands' geochemical processes contribute significantly to water purification by reducing excessive amounts of reactive carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous, thus mitigating eutrophication from agricultural inputs, benefiting downstream aquatic ecosystems and improving water quality for drinking water purposes. Drained peatlands, by contrast, have a persistent negative effect on water quality and nutrient exports. 2) Water regulation: Peatlands store and release water, which plays a pivotal role in enhancing resilience during periods of drought, sustaining environmental flows and safeguarding human drinking water supplies. Additionally, flood risks are mitigated by peatlands' capability to retain water. 3) Climate regulation: Peatlands capture, store and preserve carbon, making them a central element in national to global climate change mitigation strategies. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG, CO2, CH4 and N2O) are closely tied to WTD.
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