Biogeosciences, 9, 2793–2819, 2012 www.biogeosciences.net/9/2793/2012/ Biogeosciences doi:10.5194/bg-9-2793-2012 © Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Sensitivity of wetland methane emissions to model assumptions: application and model testing against site observations L. Meng1, P. G. M. Hess2, N. M. Mahowald3, J. B. Yavitt4, W. J. Riley5, Z. M. Subin5, D. M. Lawrence6, S. C. Swenson6, J. Jauhiainen7, and D. R. Fuka2 1Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Program, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA 2Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA 3Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA 4Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA 5Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA 94720, USA 6NCAR-CGD, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, USA 7Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland Correspondence to: L. Meng (
[email protected]) Received: 14 June 2011 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 30 June 2011 Revised: 13 June 2012 – Accepted: 29 June 2012 – Published: 30 July 2012 −1 Abstract. Methane emissions from natural wetlands and wetlands contributed 201 Tg CH4 yr , or 78 % of the global rice paddies constitute a large proportion of atmospheric wetland flux. Northern latitude (>50 N) systems contributed −1 methane, but the magnitude and year-to-year variation of 12 Tg CH4 yr . However, sensitivity studies show a large −1 these methane sources are still unpredictable. Here we de- range (150–346 Tg CH4 yr ) in predicted global methane scribe and evaluate the integration of a methane biogeochem- emissions (excluding emissions from rice paddies).