What is a primary benefit of wetland restoration in pollution control?

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Wetland restoration works because reestablishing how water moves through a landscape and bringing back native plants creates a natural treatment system. When hydrology is restored, water slows down, allowing sediments to settle and giving plants and soils time to remove pollutants. Native vegetation takes up nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, while soil microbes transform or immobilize contaminants, reducing what reaches downstream waters. The restored wetlands also store floodwaters, which dampens peak flows and reduces erosion and downstream transport of pollutants. All of this combines to filter pollutants, protect water quality, store floodwaters, and support habitat.

The other scenarios describe outcomes that would worsen pollution or risk. Increasing sediment and nutrient loads would raise pollution levels. Reducing biodiversity would undermine the ecosystem’s capacity to process pollutants. Increasing flood risk would disrupt water quality protection rather than enhance it.