Articles | Volume 12, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-441-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-441-2026
SOIL Letters
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17 Apr 2026
SOIL Letters | Highlight paper |  | 17 Apr 2026

Proglacial wetlands: an overlooked CO2 sink within recently deglaciated landscapes

Sigrid van Grinsven, Noortje E. M. Janssen, Collin van Rooij, Ruben Peters, and Arnaud Temme

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Cited articles

Anon: Geosphere Austria, https://doi.org/10.60669/923n-p390, 2026. 
Bastviken, D., Sundgren, I., Natchimuthu, S., Reyier, H., and Gälfalk, M.: Technical Note: Cost-efficient approaches to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and concentrations in terrestrial and aquatic environments using mini loggers, Biogeosciences, 12, 3849–3859, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-3849-2015, 2015. 
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Editorial statement
The publication "Proglacial wetlands: an overlooked CO2 sink within recently deglaciated landscapes" is the first to report on wetlands in recently deglaciated areas. The study demonstrates that wetlands are an important component of these landscapes, but have unfortunately been overlooked in previous studies. As glaciers retreat around the globe, there has been rapid growth of research on deglaciation and its effects. This study provides timely insights that should influence future research in deglaciated landscapes emphasising the importance of including wet soils.
Short summary
When glaciers retreat, new land surface is revealed. Using detailed glacial retreat maps, it is possible to determine for how long a location has been ice-free. That age is used in this study to analyse how fast carbon is incorporated into the soil. Our results show that the wetness of the soil strongly determines the CO2 uptake and carbon incorporation rates. Wetlands cover a small percentage of the land surface but are nonetheless important for the carbon storage in the deglaciated area.
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