Terrestrial wetlands

Abstract

The assessment of terrestrial wetland carbon stocks has improved greatly since the First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (CCSP 2007) because of recent national inventories and the development of a US soils database. Terrestrial wetlands in North America encompass an estimated 2.2 million km 2, which constitutes about 37% of the global wetland area, with a soil and vegetation carbon pool of about 161 petagrams of carbon that represents approximately 36% of global wetland carbon stock. Forested wetlands compose 55% of the total terrestrial wetland area, with the vast majority occurring in Canada. Organic soil wetlands or peatlands contain 58% of the total terrestrial wetland area and 80% of the carbon (high confidence, likely).