Application of process-based eco-hydrological model to broader northern Eurasia wetlands through coordinate transformation

Abstract

Wetlands impact on the hydrological cycle, material transport, and biogeochemical processes, and they are indispensable habitats for valuable species. In the present study, the process-based National Integrated Catchment-based Eco-hydrology (NICE) model, which includes complex interactions between hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecological processes, was extended to incorporate coordinate transformation from rectangular coordinate to longitude–latitude coordinate system applicable to continental scale and the higher latitude region by implementing a map factor and a non-uniform grid. This revised model was applied to two different wetlands of northern Eurasia (West Siberian Lowland, and Hokkaido Island in Japan) to evaluate eco-hydrological processes in the higher latitude region. The model reproduced qualitatively the heterogeneous distribution of groundwater level in the flat region of both wetlands, and revealed the connectivity between groundwater and inundated flow in the flat region of the wetlands. This result also indicates the effectiveness of hypothesis that horizontal transport component is predominant as a first approximation. This new simulation system would be effective as one of the methods to expand a grid-based model to a broader area or the higher latitude region, and also would play an important role in the further understanding of biogeochemical activity in the higher latitude region along terrestrial–aquatic continuum in continental scale.