Although wetlands only cover three percent of the Earth's land surface, they store more CO2 than all forests combined. Globally, one third of all carbon in soils is stored in marshlands. Due to this gigantic storage capacity, wetlands are of enormous importance in the fight against the climate crisis. For several thousand years, they have been extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and storing the carbon it contains in the form of complex organic molecules. The chemist Felix Panis is setting out to gain a better understanding of the biophysical and chemical mechanisms of marshlands and of their stability. The stability of these carbon stores is ensured by a high content of phenols, a class of chemical compounds. They block the decomposition of organic molecules, which ensures the stability of carbon stores in wetlands. Only a few highly specialized enzymes are able to break them down.
As part of his research project, Felix Panis is specifically investigating the influence of climate change on the distribution and activity of enzymes that can break down phenols, because changing climatic conditions are suspected of increasing the activity of these enzymes in wetlands. This reduces the phenol content in wetlands and increases the release of carbon, which in turn accelerates climate change. By researching the molecular mechanisms, it may be possible to develop measures that allow wetlands to continue to fulfill their role as global carbon stores.
“The natural sciences provide us with helpful tools to effectively counteract climate change. With my project, I am trying to close knowledge gaps in the field of biophysical mechanisms and use the latest methods to sustainably secure the role of wetlands as one of the most important CO2 stores,” says Felix Panis from the University of Vienna.
