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HIMMELI v1.0 : HelsinkI Model of MEthane buiLd-up and emIssion for peatlands

Raivonen, Maarit ; Smolander, Sampo ; Backman, Leif ; Susiluoto, Jouni ; Aalto, Tuula ; Markkanen, Tiina ; Mäkelä, Jarmo ; Rinne, Janne LU ; Peltola, Olli and Aurela, Mika , et al. (2017) In Geoscientific Model Development 10(12). p.4665-4691
Abstract

Wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. They emit CH4 because decomposition of soil organic matter in waterlogged anoxic conditions produces CH4, in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). Production of CH4 and how much of it escapes to the atmosphere depend on a multitude of environmental drivers. Models simulating the processes leading to CH4 emissions are thus needed for upscaling observations to estimate present CH4 emissions and for producing scenarios of future atmospheric CH4 concentrations. Aiming at a CH4 model that can be added to models describing peatland carbon cycling, we composed a model called HIMMELI that describes CH4 build-up in and emissions from peatland soils. It is... (More)

Wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. They emit CH4 because decomposition of soil organic matter in waterlogged anoxic conditions produces CH4, in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). Production of CH4 and how much of it escapes to the atmosphere depend on a multitude of environmental drivers. Models simulating the processes leading to CH4 emissions are thus needed for upscaling observations to estimate present CH4 emissions and for producing scenarios of future atmospheric CH4 concentrations. Aiming at a CH4 model that can be added to models describing peatland carbon cycling, we composed a model called HIMMELI that describes CH4 build-up in and emissions from peatland soils. It is not a full peatland carbon cycle model but it requires the rate of anoxic soil respiration as input. Driven by soil temperature, leaf area index (LAI) of aerenchymatous peatland vegetation, and water table depth (WTD), it simulates the concentrations and transport of CH4, CO2, and oxygen (O2) in a layered one-dimensional peat column. Here, we present the HIMMELI model structure and results of tests on the model sensitivity to the input data and to the description of the peat column (peat depth and layer thickness), and demonstrate that HIMMELI outputs realistic fluxes by comparing modeled and measured fluxes at two peatland sites. As HIMMELI describes only the CH4-related processes, not the full carbon cycle, our analysis revealed mechanisms and dependencies that may remain hidden when testing CH4 models connected to complete peatland carbon models, which is usually the case. Our results indicated that (1) the model is flexible and robust and thus suitable for different environments; (2) the simulated CH4 emissions largely depend on the prescribed rate of anoxic respiration; (3) the sensitivity of the total CH4 emission to other input variables is mainly mediated via the concentrations of dissolved gases, in particular, the O2 concentrations that affect the CH4 production and oxidation rates; (4) with given input respiration, the peat column description does not significantly affect the simulated CH4 emissions in this model version.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Geoscientific Model Development
volume
10
issue
12
pages
27 pages
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:85039869477
  • wos:000418576600001
ISSN
1991-959X
DOI
10.5194/gmd-10-4665-2017
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5f471999-6392-423d-8e55-1672c2177a55
date added to LUP
2018-01-09 13:14:09
date last changed
2024-04-15 00:23:14
@article{5f471999-6392-423d-8e55-1672c2177a55,
  abstract     = {{<p>Wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. They emit CH4 because decomposition of soil organic matter in waterlogged anoxic conditions produces CH4, in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). Production of CH4 and how much of it escapes to the atmosphere depend on a multitude of environmental drivers. Models simulating the processes leading to CH4 emissions are thus needed for upscaling observations to estimate present CH4 emissions and for producing scenarios of future atmospheric CH4 concentrations. Aiming at a CH4 model that can be added to models describing peatland carbon cycling, we composed a model called HIMMELI that describes CH4 build-up in and emissions from peatland soils. It is not a full peatland carbon cycle model but it requires the rate of anoxic soil respiration as input. Driven by soil temperature, leaf area index (LAI) of aerenchymatous peatland vegetation, and water table depth (WTD), it simulates the concentrations and transport of CH4, CO2, and oxygen (O2) in a layered one-dimensional peat column. Here, we present the HIMMELI model structure and results of tests on the model sensitivity to the input data and to the description of the peat column (peat depth and layer thickness), and demonstrate that HIMMELI outputs realistic fluxes by comparing modeled and measured fluxes at two peatland sites. As HIMMELI describes only the CH4-related processes, not the full carbon cycle, our analysis revealed mechanisms and dependencies that may remain hidden when testing CH4 models connected to complete peatland carbon models, which is usually the case. Our results indicated that (1) the model is flexible and robust and thus suitable for different environments; (2) the simulated CH4 emissions largely depend on the prescribed rate of anoxic respiration; (3) the sensitivity of the total CH4 emission to other input variables is mainly mediated via the concentrations of dissolved gases, in particular, the O2 concentrations that affect the CH4 production and oxidation rates; (4) with given input respiration, the peat column description does not significantly affect the simulated CH4 emissions in this model version.</p>}},
  author       = {{Raivonen, Maarit and Smolander, Sampo and Backman, Leif and Susiluoto, Jouni and Aalto, Tuula and Markkanen, Tiina and Mäkelä, Jarmo and Rinne, Janne and Peltola, Olli and Aurela, Mika and Lohila, Annalea and Tomasic, Marin and Li, Xuefei and Larmola, Tuula and Juutinen, Sari and Tuittila, Eeva Stiina and Heimann, Martin and Sevanto, Sanna and Kleinen, Thomas and Brovkin, Victor and Vesala, Timo}},
  issn         = {{1991-959X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{4665--4691}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Geoscientific Model Development}},
  title        = {{HIMMELI v1.0 : HelsinkI Model of MEthane buiLd-up and emIssion for peatlands}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-4665-2017}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/gmd-10-4665-2017}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}