The main objective of the project is to increase and generate scientifically based knowledge on the role of different types of Spanish wetlands in the carbon balance and greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions into the atmosphere, quantifying it globally for the set of coastal and saline wetlands of the Valencian Community and Castilla La Mancha in the Mediterranean biogeographic region.

The main objective of the project is to increase and generate scientifically based knowledge on the role of different types of Spanish wetlands in the carbon balance and greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions into the atmosphere, quantifying it globally for the set of coastal and saline wetlands of the Valencian Community and Castilla La Mancha in the Mediterranean biogeographic region. They will be included in the Natura 2000 Network and establish how these patterns would be modified in the different climate change scenarios envisaged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Among the activities that are within the framework of the project are listed:

• To carry out a synthesis of the available results on carbon and greenhouse gas balances in Mediterranean coastal wetlands and saline lagoons in the Valencian and Castilla La Mancha Communities.
• The delimitation and cataloguing of these sites included in the Natura 2000 Network.
• The choice of any of these wetlands to complete, if necessary, the determinations on carbon and greenhouse gas balances and to make these determinations.
• The extrapolation of the Carbon and Greenhouse Gas balances, as well as their warming capacity (Global Warming Potential ) obtained from the set of wetlands studied of the Natura 2000 Network in the Autonomous Communities in accordance with the indications of the different collaborating bodies of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment.
• The creation of models that define predictable changes in the key environmental variables for the carbon balance of the types of wetlands studied in the different climate scenarios established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• The proposal of adaptation measures to maximise the good ecological functioning of these wetlands and their regulatory role in the carbon cycle.