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- Title
WETMETH 1.0: a new wetland methane model for implementation in Earth system models.
- Authors
Nzotungicimpaye, Claude-Michel; Zickfeld, Kirsten; MacDougall, Andrew H.; Melton, Joe R.; Treat, Claire C.; Eby, Michael; Lesack, Lance F. W.
- Abstract
Wetlands are the single largest natural source of methane (CH 4), a powerful greenhouse gas affecting the global climate. In turn, wetland CH 4 emissions are sensitive to changes in climate conditions such as temperature and precipitation shifts. However, biogeochemical processes regulating wetland CH 4 emissions (namely microbial production and oxidation of CH 4) are not routinely included in fully coupled Earth system models that simulate feedbacks between the physical climate, the carbon cycle, and other biogeochemical cycles. This paper introduces a process-based wetland CH 4 model (WETMETH) developed for implementation in Earth system models and currently embedded in an Earth system model of intermediate complexity. Here, we (i) describe the wetland CH 4 model, (ii) evaluate the model performance against available datasets and estimates from the literature, and (iii) analyze the model sensitivity to perturbations of poorly constrained parameters. Historical simulations show that WETMETH is capable of reproducing mean annual emissions consistent with present-day estimates across spatial scales. For the 2008–2017 decade, the model simulates global mean wetland emissions of 158.6 Tg CH 4 yr -1 , of which 33.1 Tg CH 4 yr -1 is from wetlands north of 45 ∘ N. WETMETH is highly sensitive to parameters for the microbial oxidation of CH 4 , which is the least constrained process in the literature.
- Subjects
CARBON cycle; METHANE; WETLANDS; BIOGEOCHEMICAL cycles; CLIMATE change; GREENHOUSE gases
- Publication
Geoscientific Model Development, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 10, p6215
- ISSN
1991-959X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/gmd-14-6215-2021