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Title: Evaluation of wetland methane emissions across North America using atmospheric data and inverse modeling

Journal Article · · Biogeosciences (Online)
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Environment Canada, Victoria (Canada)
  3. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra (Italy)
  5. Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA (United States)
  6. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  7. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto (Canada)
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Existing estimates of methane (CH4) fluxes from North American wetlands vary widely in both magnitude and distribution. In light of these differences, this study uses atmospheric CH4 observations from the US and Canada to analyze seven different bottom-up, wetland CH4 estimates reported in a recent model comparison project. We first use synthetic data to explore whether wetland CH4 fluxes are detectable at atmospheric observation sites. We find that the observation network can detect aggregate wetland fluxes from both eastern and western Canada but generally not from the US. Based upon these results, we then use real data and inverse modeling results to analyze the magnitude, seasonality, and spatial distribution of each model estimate. The magnitude of Canadian fluxes in many models is larger than indicated by atmospheric observations. Many models predict a seasonality that is narrower than implied by inverse modeling results, possibly indicating an oversensitivity to air or soil temperatures. The LPJ-Bern and SDGVM models have a geographic distribution that is most consistent with atmospheric observations, depending upon the region and season. Lastly, these models utilize land cover maps or dynamic modeling to estimate wetland coverage while most other models rely primarily on remote sensing inundation data.

Research Organization:
Krell Institute, Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-97ER25308
OSTI ID:
1253170
Journal Information:
Biogeosciences (Online), Vol. 13, Issue 4; ISSN 1726-4189
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Temporal Variations of the Mole Fraction, Carbon, and Hydrogen Isotope Ratios of Atmospheric Methane in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada journal May 2018
Global wetland contribution to 2000–2012 atmospheric methane growth rate dynamics journal September 2017
Methane fluxes in the high northern latitudes for 2005–2013 estimated using a Bayesian atmospheric inversion journal January 2017
Constraining sector-specific CO 2 and CH 4 emissions in the US journal January 2017
Global wetland contribution to 2000–2012 atmospheric methane growth rate dynamics text January 2017

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