A satellite data driven biophysical modeling approach for estimating northern peatland and tundra CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes

Authors

J. D. Watts, University of Montana - MissoulaFollow
John S. Kimball, University of Montana - MissoulaFollow
F. J. W. Parmentier, Lund University
T. Sachs, GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience
J. Rinne, University of Helsinki
D. Zona, University of Sheffield; San Diego State UniversityFollow
W. Oechel, San Diego State UniversityFollow
T. Tagesson, Copenhagen University
M. Jackowicz-Korczynski, Lund University
M. Aurela, Finnish Meteorological Institute

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Biogeosciences

Publisher

Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union

Publication Date

4-9-2014

Volume

11

Issue

7

Disciplines

Biology | Earth Sciences | Geology | Life Sciences

Abstract

The northern terrestrial net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) is contingent on inputs from vegetation gross primary productivity (GPP) to offset the ecosystem respiration (Reco) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emissions, but an effective framework to monitor the regional Arctic NECB is lacking. We modified a terrestrial carbon flux (TCF) model developed for satellite remote sensing applications to evaluate wetland CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes over pan-Arctic eddy covariance (EC) flux tower sites. The TCF model estimates GPP, CO2 and CH4 emissions using in situ or remote sensing and reanalysis-based climate data as inputs. The TCF model simulations using in situ data explained >70% of the r₂ variability in the 8 day cumulative EC measured fluxes. Model simulations using coarser satellite (MODIS) and reanalysis (MERRA) records accounted for approximately 69% and 75% of the respective r₂ variability in the tower CO₂ and CH₄ records, with corresponding RWSE uncertainties of 1.3 gCM-2 d-1 (CO₂) and 18.2 mg Cm-2 d-1 (CH₄). Although the estimated annual CH₄ emissions were small (gCm-2 yr-1) relative to Reco (>180 gCm-2 yr-1), they reduced the across-site NECB by 23%and contributed to a global warming potential of approximately 165±128 gCO₂eqm−2 yr−1 when considered over a 100 year time span. This model evaluation indicates a strong potential for using the TCF model approach to document landscape-scale variability in CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes, and to estimate the NECB for northern peatland and tundra ecosystems.

Keywords

LENA RIVER DELTA, TIME-SERIES DATA, LIGHT-USE-EFFICIENCY, METHANE EMISSIONS, ARCTIC TUNDRA, CARBON-DIOXIDE, BIOGEOCHEMISTRY MODEL, ECOSYSTEM CARBON, VASCULAR PLANTS, CLIMATE-CHANGE

DOI

10.5194/bg-11-1961-2014

Rights

© Author(s) 2014

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Watts, J. D., Kimball, J. S., Parmentier, F. J. W., Sachs, T., Rinne, J., Zona, D., Oechel, W., Tagesson, T., Jackowicz-Korczyński, M., and Aurela, M.: A satellite data driven biophysical modeling approach for estimating northern peatland and tundra CO2 and CH4 fluxes, Biogeosciences, 11, 1961-1980, doi:10.5194/bg-11-1961-2014, 2014.