Abstract
Rewetting is widely promoted as a climate mitigation strategy to preserve soil carbon in drained wetlands, although rewetting may enhance methane production and corresponding emissions. The increase in methane emissions following rewetting might be underestimated without considering near-surface methane oxidation under a fluctuating water table. Here, we refined the methane module in Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator with high-affinity methane oxidation and oxygen parameterization involving water table fluctuations. During 2007-2023, the Danish temperate wetland site functioned as a carbon dioxide sink (−41 gC-CO2m-2yr⁻1) and a methane source (0.71 gC-CH4m⁻2yr⁻1), with significant declines in seasonal amplitudes of methane flux, net ecosystem exchange, and gross primary productivity. Scenario analysis shows maintaining a stable water table at 9 cm depth offers the optimal trade-off between carbon sequestration and methane release. Our findings reduce the uncertainty in wetland methane estimates under climate change and highlight the importance of site-specific rewetting strategies to optimize mitigation efforts.
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Data availability
The source data for the figures is available as Excel files in the Figshare repository (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29436383).
Code availability
The Code and documentation for LPJ-GUESS 4.1 are publicly available at https://web.nateko.lu.se/lpj-guess/. The code of the improved methane module and multirun setup is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29322836.
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Acknowledgements
We want to acknowledge all the model developers of LPJ-GUESS. B.Z. was supported by the China Scholarship Council (202206160021) as well as by the Danish National Research Foundation (CENPERM DNRF 100). P.W. has been supported by the Pioneer Center for Research in Sustainable Agricultural Futures (Land-CRAFT DNRF grant number P2). This work is additionally funded by the Swedish Research Council VR 2020-05338 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32201360).
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Bo Elberling conceived the study with input from Bingqian Zhao and Wenxin Zhang. Bingqian Zhao implemented the LPJ-GUESS with the contribution of Wenxin Zhang and Adrian Gustafson. Christian J. Jørgensen processed measurements for the study site. Bingqian Zhao and Peiyan Wang conducted the incubation experiment and are responsible for the laboratory data. Bingqian Zhao led the writing of the manuscript under the supervision of Bo Elberling and Wenxin Zhang, with comments/edits from all authors.
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Zhao, B., Zhang, W., Wang, P. et al. Optimized wetland rewetting strategies can control methane, carbon dioxide, and oxygen responses to water table fluctuations. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03163-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03163-7
