Wetland soil carbon storage in the Prairie Pothole region of Saskatchewan

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The co-existence of crop production and wetlands is an on-going challenge in agricultural landscapes, especially with the increasing understanding of the important role of wetlands for carbon storage. The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) has important and distinct types of wetlands due to its geology and topography, known as prairie potholes. Currently at least 70% of prairie potholes in Canada have been drained, which is of significance to soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in the Canadian Prairies as prairie potholes can store as much as twice the SOC in no-till croplands. Given their potential as carbon sinks, prairie pothole wetlands can have an important contribution to Canada's action on nature-based solutions for climate change. Currently, estimates of wetland SOC storage for the PPR are often generalized across climate regimes as well as wetland types with varying amounts of surface water storage and temporal drainage dynamics. The goal of this research will be to improve tools for estimating soil carbon stocks in the Canadian PPR. The creation of region-specific stock values is necessary to improve the accuracy of wetland SOC stock estimates. Specifically, we aim to refine the stock estimates to better account for the interactions amongst wetland classes (ephemeral, temporary, and seasonal), climate gradients and naturally occurring salinity.