Scaling tropical wetland methane fluxes regionally and globally
Wetlands purify water and absorb carbon dioxide but release large amounts of methane. Tropical wetlands are also one of the least understood ecosystems on earth. This knowledge gap is unfortunate because science projects tropical methane emissions to rise. Determining if and when they do will require a baseline—a global synthesis of tropical emissions and their predictors.
Wetlands purify water and absorb carbon dioxide but release large amounts of methane (CH4). Tropical wetlands are also one of the least understood ecosystems on earth. This knowledge gap is unfortunate because science projects tropical methane emissions to rise. Determining if and when they do will require a baseline—a global synthesis of tropical emissions and their predictors. That synthesis and regional scaling is the goal of this proposal.
To understand how much methane tropical wetlands emit—and whether these emissions are driving the recent rise in atmospheric CH4 concentrations—we propose to synthesize methane flux observations from eddy flux towers complemented with global flux chamber data. Using this dataset, we will identify key predictors of methane fluxes, improving process-level understanding and enabling us to scale tropical methane emissions globally. Finally, we will incorporate these new data into FLUXNET-CH4, a global CH4 eddy covariance database that we established through a previous Powell Center synthesis and will release FLUXNET-CH4-V2.0.
By leveraging this expanded database and taking advantage of continuous, high-frequency flux tower and chamber measurements, our collaboration will provide novel insights into the controls, timing, and scaling of tropical CH4 fluxes. Additionally, the expanded global flux dataset will be used to improve Earth system models and update UpCH4 V1.0, the first global wetland CH4 emissions product upscaled from eddy flux data.
Principal Investigators
Robert Jackson (Stanford University)
Sara Knox (McGill University)
Lisamarie Windham-Myers (USGS Water Mission Area)
Alison Hoyt (Stanford University)
Wetlands purify water and absorb carbon dioxide but release large amounts of methane. Tropical wetlands are also one of the least understood ecosystems on earth. This knowledge gap is unfortunate because science projects tropical methane emissions to rise. Determining if and when they do will require a baseline—a global synthesis of tropical emissions and their predictors.
Wetlands purify water and absorb carbon dioxide but release large amounts of methane (CH4). Tropical wetlands are also one of the least understood ecosystems on earth. This knowledge gap is unfortunate because science projects tropical methane emissions to rise. Determining if and when they do will require a baseline—a global synthesis of tropical emissions and their predictors. That synthesis and regional scaling is the goal of this proposal.
To understand how much methane tropical wetlands emit—and whether these emissions are driving the recent rise in atmospheric CH4 concentrations—we propose to synthesize methane flux observations from eddy flux towers complemented with global flux chamber data. Using this dataset, we will identify key predictors of methane fluxes, improving process-level understanding and enabling us to scale tropical methane emissions globally. Finally, we will incorporate these new data into FLUXNET-CH4, a global CH4 eddy covariance database that we established through a previous Powell Center synthesis and will release FLUXNET-CH4-V2.0.
By leveraging this expanded database and taking advantage of continuous, high-frequency flux tower and chamber measurements, our collaboration will provide novel insights into the controls, timing, and scaling of tropical CH4 fluxes. Additionally, the expanded global flux dataset will be used to improve Earth system models and update UpCH4 V1.0, the first global wetland CH4 emissions product upscaled from eddy flux data.
Principal Investigators
Robert Jackson (Stanford University)
Sara Knox (McGill University)
Lisamarie Windham-Myers (USGS Water Mission Area)
Alison Hoyt (Stanford University)