Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 5 2 2009 10.5194/cpd-5-817-2009 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/817/2009/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/817/2009/cpd-5-817-2009.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/817/2009/cpd-5-817-2009.pdf 817 851 2009-03-04 Uncertainties in modeling CH₄ emissions from northern wetlands in glacial climates: effect of hydrological model and CH₄ model structure C. Berrittella cberri@falw.vu.nl J. van Huissteden Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Department of Hydrology and Geo-Environmental Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Methane (CH₄) fluxes from northern wetlands may have influenced atmospheric CH₄ concentrations at climate warming phases during the 800 000 years and at present global warming. Including these CH₄ fluxes in earth system models is essential to understand feedbacks between climate and atmospheric composition. <br><br> Attempts to model CH₄ fluxes from wetlands have been undertaken previously using various approaches. Here, we test a process-based wetland CH₄ flux model (PEATLAND-VU) which includes details of soil-atmosphere CH₄ transport. The model has been used to simulate CH₄ emissions from continental Europe in different glacial climates and the present climate. <br><br> This paper displays results on the sensitivity of modeling glacial terrestrial CH₄ fluxes to basic tuning parameters of the model, to different approaches in modeling of the water table, and to model structure. For testing the model structure, PEATLAND-VU has been compared to a simpler modeling approach based on wetland primary production estimated from a vegetation model (BIOME). 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