Towards a global model for wetlands ecosystem services

Abstract

Wetlands play an important role in the provision of important ecosystem services like the provision of clean water to the world, adaptation to climate change, and support for biodiversity; although they are sometimes also associated with adverse climate effects. Wetlands are, however, currently grossly underrepresented in global environmental models. In this paper, we explore the required functionality of a generic model of the effects of climate and land-use changes on wetlands ecosystem services worldwide. We briefly review existing models to identify elements which can be combined to compile a generic wetland model. The proposed global wetland model should be integrated into and receive data from existing hydrology and climate models. Wetland delineation can be based on local hydrological and topographical conditions and verified with global wetland databases. We conclude that an integrated approach combining hydrology, biogeochemistry and vegetation for wetlands is not available yet, however, useful building blocks exist that can be combined.