PT Unknown
AU Abdul-Aziz, OI
   Liu, S
   Young, CJ
   Huang, S
TI Regional-scale biogeochemical modeling of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wetland ecosystems [abs.]
BT Fall Meeting
PY 2010
VL Fall Meeting Abstracts
LA FY 2011
DE application; biogeochemical modeling; calibration; carbon; carbon dioxide; carbon sequestration; climate; CO2; coastal; conference abstracts; data; data availability; development; ecological; ecosystem; emission; geological surveys; GHG; global; global scale; global warming; greenhouse gas; land; land use/land cover; methane; model; modeling; nitrous oxide; oxide; parameterization; policy; prairie; prairie pothole region; processes; regional; research; scale; scenario; sequestration; spatial; structure; synthesis; temporal; tool; United States; United States Geological Survey; water; wetland
AB Wetlands can play an important role in carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and global warming. Biogeochemical models are valuable tools to quantify emissions of major GHGs such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) from wetland ecosystems. Although several models can be found in literature, most of them are mainly site-scale models and only few have been developed at the global scale. Current global-scale models incorporate over-simplified process descriptions and assumptions, and fail to capture the regional or mesoscale phenomena. On the other hand, site-scale models generally involve highly detailed process descriptions that increase the model complexity while not being notably rewarding at the regional scale. Further, calibration of the site-scale models (even if slightly modified for the regional-scale applications) requires data for many input variables and parameters that may not be available at larger scales. We developed a "Unit Wetland Ecosystem" framework, which incorporates a zero-dimensional, conceptual modeling approach that can be applied in any spatial (site, regional, and global) and temporal (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly) scales. The framework is used here to develop a regional-scale model that involves a simple structure, minimum input variables, and parsimonious parameterizations based on data availability, synthesis of existing literature, and new developments, as appropriate. We applied this model to simulate the regional GHG emissions from the wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States. The wetland biogeochemical modeling framework will also be applied to quantify wetland GHG emissions from both freshwater and coastal wetlands nationwide. This research is a part of the United States Geological Survey's ecological carbon sequestration project that aims to quantify carbon sequestration and GHG emissions of the U.S. lands and waters under changing climate, land use/land cover, and socio-economic and policy scenarios.
PI Washington, D.C.
ER