In the Global Wetland Center, we want to design novel approaches for modelling wetlands’ greenhouse gas budgets that can guide wetland management. This will enable wetlands to contribute to the global agenda towards climate neutrality.

Research

In the Global Wetland Center, we want to develop accurate descriptions of ecosystem processes to improve Earth System Models and provide policymaking with quantitative science tools. To do so, we will integrate models and data of wetland hydrology and biogeochemistry.

 

Theme 1: Process understanding
We will investigate the ecohydrological drivers of wetland greenhouse gas emissions based on existing data and will pursue field activities at three sites to fill gaps in our understanding of drivers. We will use existing and new observations to develop a model of wetland biogeochemistry, which will be applied at plot scale and will be coupled to a hydrological model at catchment scale.

Theme 2: Enabling technologies
We will take advantage of the latest developments in Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence to assess the extent of wetland types at high spatial resolution, and to quantify the seasonal dynamics and long-term trends of hydrological conditions in wetlands. We will also integrate differentiable programming into our model code, bringing it at the forefront of technological development.

Theme 3: Global wetland models and climate change mitigation
We will advance the representation of wetland hydrology in global models using data-informed and mechanistic modelling. With these tools, we will simulate the global wetland greenhouse gas balance and will assess the potentials of wetland management. We will develop methods for wetland-based climate change mitigation that can contribute to reporting of Nationally Determined Contributions.

 

Funded by

Novo Nordisk Foundation

Project: The Global Wetland Center is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Period:  January 2024 - December 2029