Natural Resources, School of

 

Authors

Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Annalea Lohila, Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Juha-Pekka Tuovinen, Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Dennis D. Baldocchi, University of California - BerkeleyFollow
Ankur R. Desai, University of Wisconsin-MadisonFollow
Nigel T. Roulet, McGill University
Timo Vesala, University of Helsinki
Albertus Johannes Dolman, VU University Amsterdam
Walter C. Oechel, San Diego State University
Barbara Marcolla, Sustainable Agro-ecosystems and Bioresources Department, Fondazione Edmund Mach
Thomas Friborg, University of Copenhagen
Janne Rinne, Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Jaclyn Hatala Matthes, University of California - Berkeley
Lutz Merbold, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Ana Meijide, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Gerard Kiely, University College Cork
Matteo Sottocornola, University College Cork
Torsten Sachs, German Research Centre for Geosciences
Donatella Zona, San Diego State University
Andrej Varlagin, Russian Academy of Sciences
Derrick Y.F. Lai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Elmar Veenendaal, Wageningen University
Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Lund University
Ute Skiba, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Magnus Land, Lund University
Arjan Hensen, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Environmental Research,
Jacobus van Huissteden, VU University Amsterdam
Lawrence B. Flanagan, University of Lethbridge
Narasinha J. Shurpali, University of Eastern Finland
Thomas Grünwald, Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology
Elyn R. Humphreys, Carleton University
Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski, Lund University
Mika A. Aurela, Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Tuomas Laurila, Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Carsten Grüning, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Chiara A.R. Corradi, University of Tuscia of Viterbo
Arina P. Schrier-Uijl, Wageningen University
Torben R. Christensen, Lund University
Mikkel P. Tamstorf, Aarhus University
Mikhail Mastepanov, Lund University
Pertti J. Martikainen, University of Eastern Finland
Shashi Verma, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Christian Bernhofer, Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology
Alessandro Cescatti, European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability

Date of this Version

2015

Citation

PNAS, vol. 112, no. 15, 4594–4599

Comments

Open Access Article

Abstract

Significant climate risks are associated with a positive carbon–temperature feedback in northern latitude carbon-rich ecosystems,making an accurate analysis of human impacts on the net greenhouse gas balance of wetlands a priority. Here, we provide a coherent assessment of the climate footprint of a network of wetland sites based on simultaneous and quasi-continuous ecosystem observations of CO2 and CH4 fluxes. Experimental areas are located both in natural and in managed wetlands and cover a wide range of climatic regions, ecosystem types, and management practices. Based on direct observations we predict that sustained CH4 emissions in natural ecosystems are in the long term (i.e., several centuries) typically offset by CO2 uptake, although with large spatiotemporal variability. Using a space-for-time analogy across ecological and climatic gradients, we represent the chronosequence from natural to managed conditions to quantify the “cost” of CH4 emissions for the benefit of net carbon sequestration. With a sustained pulse– response radiative forcing model, we found a significant increase in atmospheric forcing due to land management, in particular for wetland converted to cropland. Our results quantify the role of human activities on the climate footprint of northern wetlands and call for development of active mitigation strategies for managed wetlands and new guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accounting for both sustained CH4 emissions and cumulative CO2 exchange.

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