A soil climate parameterization is designed for peatland environments in the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS). Three wetland soil classes account for the variation in the hydraulic characteristics of organic soils. Saturated hydraulic conductivity varies from a median of 1.0 x 10-7 m/s in deeply humidified sapric peat to 2.8 x 10-4 m/s in relatively undecomposed fibric peat. Average pore volume fraction ranges from 0.83 to 0.93. Parameters are derived for the soil moisture characteristic curves of fibric, hemic and sapric peat, using the Campbell (1974) equation employed in CLASS, and the van Genuchten (1980) formulation. Validation of modelled water table depth and peat temperature is performed for a fen in northern Quebec and a bog in north-central Minnesota. The new parameterization results in more realistic simulation than the previous version of CLASS, which was constrained to using mineral soil properties to approximate those of organic soils. / Two approaches are used to model methane emissions from northern peatlands using the new soil climate parameterization in CLASS. In the first module, the multiple regression equation of Dise et al. (1993) is used to simulate daily methane emissions from water table depth and peat temperature. In the process-based module, methane flux is divided into its component parts: plant transport, diffusion and ebullition. Each of these transport mechanisms is determined by methane concentrations, which are calculated from a series of processes related to peat temperature, water table level and rooting depth. The daily methane emissions predicted by the two models are similar and correlate reasonably with observations from a bog in north-central Minnesota.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.21590 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Letts, Matthew Guy. |
| Contributors | Roulet, Nigel T. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Geography.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001656999, proquestno: MQ50817, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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