Carbon Cycling in Wetland Forest Soils

Carl C. Trettin; Martin F. Jurgensen

Carbon Cycling in Wetland Forest Soils

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Carl C. Trettin, Martin F. Jurgensen

Year:

2003

Type:

Scientific Journal

Station:

Southern Research Station

Source:

In: The Potential of U.S. Forest Soils to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect. CRC Press. Boca Raton. 2003. p. 311-331 Edited by: Kimble, J.M.; Heath, Linda S.; Birdsey, Richard A.; Lal, R.

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Abstract

Wetlands comprise a small proportion (i.e., 2 to 3%) of earth's terrestrial surface, yet they contain a significant proportion of the terrestrial carbon (C) pool. Soils comprise the largest terrestrial C pool (ca. 1550 Pg C in upper 100 cm; Eswaran et al., 1993; Batjes, 1996), and wetlands contain the single largest component, with estimates ranging between 18 and 30% of the total soil C. In addition to being an important C pool, wetlands contribute approximately 22% of the annual global methane emissions (Bartlett and Harris, 1993; Matthews and Fung, 1987). Despite the importance of wetlands in the global C budget, they are typically omitted from large-scale assessments because of scale, inadequate models, and limited information on C turnover and temporal dynamics.

Citation

Trettin, Carl C.; Jurgensen, Martin F. 2003. Carbon Cycling in Wetland Forest Soils. In: The Potential of U.S. Forest Soils to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect. CRC Press. Boca Raton. 2003. p. 311-331 Edited by: Kimble, J.M.; Heath, Linda S.; Birdsey, Richard A.; Lal, R.