Wetland drainage produces substantial greenhouse gas emissions in the Canadian Prairie Pothole Region

The Prairie Pothole Region of central North America has land use dominated by agriculture and is characterized by many small mineral-soil wetlands that are commonly drained to increase the land available for crop production. Here, we synthesize the available data regarding Canadian prairie mineral wetland carbon storage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, along with other aspects of land-use change GHG emissions, in a full life-cycle assessment to estimate the net effect of ongoing wetland drainage on Canada’s GHG budget. Our analysis found that 2.13 Tg CO2-eq are released from one year’s worth of prairie wetland drainage, and this is dominated by CO2-eq lost through exposure of wetland sediment to atmospheric conditions. Our estimated emissions from wetland drainage increased to 3.38 Tg CO2-eqwhen natural emissions from the intact wetlands were excluded. Other land-use changes associated with wetland drainage, including eliminating nitrous oxide emissions from double fertilization of t..., , # Wetland drainage produces substantial greenhouse gas emissions in the Canadian Prairie Pothole Region

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txss](10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txss)

## Description of the data and file structure

We derived values for Terms 1–6 from a combination of data sources, including peer-reviewed literature and gray literature including the National Inventory Report for Canada. Details of sources are included in the manuscript.

Term1_Wetland loss_ha.yr: Area of wetlands drained per year, in hectares per year.

Term2_MgC.ha  : Carbon released from wetland sediments after drainage, in Mg CO2 per hectare

Term3_CO2e_Mg.ha.yr: Avoided greenhouse gas emissions (sum of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide) from wetlands after drainage in Mg CO2-eq per hectare per year.

Term4_CO2e_Mg.ha.yr: Greenhouse gas emissions produced from farming and fertilizing the former wetland, including direct N~2~O emissions from soils, indirect N~2~O emissions, and CO~2~ emissions from farm fue...,