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The Global Distribution of Freshwater Wetlands

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The Global Distribution of Freshwater Wetlands NCAR/TN-416+STR NCAR TECHNICAL NOTE I - I September 1995 The Global Distribution of Freshwater Wetlands L. M. Stillwell-Soller L. F. Klinger D. Pollard S. L. Thompson CLIMATE AND GLOBAL DYNAMICS DIVISION I NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH BOULDER, COLORADO TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables . .. i List of Figures . .iv Preface .................. v Acknowledgments .... ............. .. .vi v. I Introduction .................... 1 II Scientific Rationale . .. 3 III Description of Data ..... .................... 5 IV Presentation of Figures . ............. ....... V Data Files ....... .. ...................... 9 References . .. 10 Table Captions . ..... ..... ....... 13 Figure Captions . .18 ii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Aselman & Crutzen wetland categories ................ 14 Table 2. Aselman & Crutzen wetland category descriptions ......... 15 Table 3. Wetland categories used and corresponding data files ........ 16 Table 4. Bog and Fen vegetation types. ............. 17 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page0 Figure 1. Aselman & Crutzen's global distribution of wet-cultivation 20 rice paddies Figure 2. Aselman & Crutzen's monthly cultivated area of wet- 21 cultivation rice paddies for 10°latitude belts. Figure 3. Mid-range values for Aselman & Crutzen's wet-cultivation 22 rice paddy area. Figure 4. Distribution of total freshwater natural wetlands. 23 Figure 5. Distribution of wet-cultivation rice paddies. 23 Figure 6. Distribution of Fens. 24 Figure 7. Distribution of Bogs. 24 Figure 8. Distribution of Permanent Swamps. 25 Figure 9. Distribution of Permanent Marshes. 25 Figure 10. Distribution of Shallow Lakes 26 Figure 11. Distribution of Permanent Floodplains. 26 Figure 12. Distribution of Seasonal Floodplains 27 Figure 13. Distribution of Seasonal Swamps/Marshes. 27 Figures 14.a-14.1 Monthly distributions of Seasonal wet-cultivation Rice 28 Paddies. Figures 15.a-15.1 Monthly distribution of Seasonal Floodplains. 34 Figures 16.a-16.1 Monthly distribution of Seasonal Swamps/Marshes. 40 Figure 17. Seasonal Floodplains with unknown monthly variation. 46 Figure 18. Seasonal Swamps/Marshes with unknown monthly varia- 46 tion. Figure 19. Example of the ASCII text format for data files. 47 iv PREFACE During the last decade the complexity of land-surface models (LSMls) used in global climate models (GCMs) has increased dramatically, from soil buckets with prescribed albedos and surface roughness to explicit vegetation canopies overlying multi-layer soil profiles. Although the optimal levels of complexity for various global modeling applications are still unclear, some processes included in the newer LSMs can significantly affect GCM sensitivities at global and regional scales (e.g., Garratt, 1993; Henderson-Sellers et al., 1995; Pollard and Thompson, 1995). The added realism in the newer LSMs has created a need for global gridded datasets of various aspects of vegetation, soil and surface hydrology, in order to specify prescribed parameters in the models and to validate their predicted fields. One such set is the geographical and seasonal distribution of various types of wetlands. Although wetlands are not predicted or even prescribed yet in most LSMs, we anticipate that they will be included in the near future because of their importance to surface hydrology, trace gas fluxes, and the near-surface climate. To support this anticipated development we have assembled a global dataset of wetland distributions, using existing data sources and compiling them into a uniform set of digitized maps at 10x10 resolution for convenient use with GCMs. The main source for our dataset is Aselman and Crutzen (1989), who produced global maps of percent cover for a variety of wetlands categories. Their categories, which are physically based and well-suited for LSM applications, consist of Bogs, Fens, Permanent Swamps, Permanent Marshes, Shallow Lakes, Permanent Floodplains, Seasonal Floodplains, Seasonal Swamp/Marshes and Wet Rice Paddies. However, (i) their digitized files are not readily available, (ii) their seasonal information is coded in a relatively inconvenient way, and (iii) as discussed by Aselman and Crutzen, their data for Alaska is poor. We have partially remedied the latter drawback by merging their maps. with a recent dataset of Alaskan bogs and fens by Lee Klinger (NCAR, personal communication). This technical note describes procedures used to assemble our dataset, presents global maps of all the wetland categories, and provides some discussion of the importance of wetlands for climate studies. The complete set of digitized l°by 1° global maps is available by anonymous ftp and on the NCAR Mass Storage System, and information on the format and locations of these files is given below. v One drawback of the Aselman and Crutzen data is that salt marshes are not included because their original data was compiled specifically for the study of methane emissions which are dominated by freshwater sources. Cogley (1991) provides global maps of some types of salt water marshes and salt flats, but the overlap with the Aselman and Crutzen data is not entirely clear so we decided to omit this category and restrict our dataset to freshwater wetlands. Matthews and Fung (1987) have also compiled a global wetlands dataset by combining maps of soils, vegetation and inundation. However this indirect approach is relatively uncertain and indiscriminating compared to Aselman and Crutzen's and Klinger's direct approach of compiling local data sources. The two approaches and differences in their results are discussed by Aselman and Crutzen (1989). vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was conducted as part of the GENESIS Earth Systems Modeling Project at NCAR, supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Interagency Agreement No. DW49935658-01-0. We thank Dennis Shea, Gordon Bonan and Steve Hostetler for helpfull comments. vii I. Introduction. Historically, General Circulation Models (GCMs) treated surface processes rather simplistically as a result of technological and theoretical limitations. Consequently, detailed information regarding surface processes was not necessary for climate studies. With technological advancements, improved scientific knowledge and an increased awareness of the importance of surface processes upon the climate, GCM surface prescription capabilities became more sophisticated and better able to answer more complex climatological questions. As a result a need has arisen for accurate data bases containing necessary information about terrestrial systems. The global coverage and spatial distributions of vegetation types, soil types, and water sources are a few examples of the necessary surface information required for today's climate modeling studies. Other data needs are sure to arise as our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions, and their influence on the climate, improves. Past global climate simulations have demonstrated that the climate system is sensitive to relatively large changes in vegetation patterns and to the presence of water on the land surface (Charney, et al., 1977; Sud et al., 1990; Bonan et al., 1992). The distribution of wetlands is thus an important component of biosphere-atmosphere interactions because they embody both vegetation and freely available water. In addition, Wetland areas store and release atmospheric gases (CH4 and 002), decrease drainage and change surface albedos. For climate modeling, accurate estimates of the total land area coverage and the distribution of wetlands, as well as wetland types, are important if we are to understand methane flux characteristics from wetlands, wetland carbon storage dynamics and the effects of wetland hydrology on the climate system. This report describes a global wetland data base for climate modeling. Our aim is to provide an accurate, comprehensive and uniform set of files for convenient specification of wetlands in global climate models. The completed Wetlands data base consists of 68 ASCII data files, half (34) of which are gridded at a resolution of 2.5°by 5°and the other half gridded at a finer resolution of 1°by 1°. These data files are in the form of global maps showing the areal extent of land covered by different types of wetlands. The data base is essentially a re-gridding of Aselman and Crutzen's (1989) data base, with some reorganization for seasonally varying categories (henceforth, we refer to Aselman & 1 Crutzen as AC, and their 1989 paper as AC89). Alaskan data for bogs and fens provided by Dr. Lee Klinger (personal communication, 1995) are included because the AC data are relatively poor for Alaska (AC89). The remaining document is organized as follows: Section 2 includes a brief scientific discussion on the climatological importance of wetland areas, section 3 describes the original data and our data processing methods, section 4 presents the analyzed data in graphical form, and section 5 describes the data files, including file format, storage and access methods. 2 II. Scientific Rationale Wetlands alter the climate on global scales through the storage and release of greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4 ) and carbon dioxide (C0 2 ). Wetlands also moderate the climate on regional scales through hydrological processes such as increased evaporation and decreased drainage, and through an increase in the land albedo as compared to boreal forest zones (Klinger, 1991). The amount of methane gas in the atmosphere is increasing annually by approximately 1% (Matthews & Fung, 1987; AC89; Moore & Knowles, 1990). Several studies indicate that this
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