North American Prairie Wetlands are Important Nonforested Land-Based Carbon Storage Sites

Authors

Ned H. Euliss Jr., USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
R. A. Gleason, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research CenterFollow
A. Olness, U.S. Department of Agriculture, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, MN
R.L. McDougal, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, Oak Hammock, MB, Canada
H.R. Murkin, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, Oak Hammock, MB, Canada
R.D. Robarts, Environment Canada, National Water Research Institute
R.A. Bourbonniere, Environment Canada, National Water Research Institute, Burlington, ON, Canada
B.G. Warner, University of Waterloo

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in Science of the Total Environment 361 (2006) 179– 188.

Abstract

We evaluated the potential of prairie wetlands in North America as carbon sinks. Agricultural conversion has resulted in the average loss of 10.1 Mg ha^- of soil organic carbon on over 16 million ha of wetlands in this region. Wetland restoration has potential to sequester 378 Tg of organic carbon over a 10-year period. Wetlands can sequester over twice the organic carbon as no-till cropland on only about 17% of the total land area in the region. We estimate that wetland restoration has potential to offset 2.4% of the annual fossil CO₂ emission reported for North America in 1990.