Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of Vascular Plants on Seasonal Pore Water Carbon Dynamics in a Lotic Wetland

  • Article
  • Published:
Wetlands Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examined pore water dissolved carbon pools among three wetland habitats defined by different plant species, and asked if temporal dynamics in C pools were related to temporal patterns of plant production. Concentrations of CH4, DIC, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were measured monthly at 4 sediment depths over 1 year in Nymphaea odorata (NY), Proserpinaca palustris (PR), and Juncus effusus (JU) habitats. CH4 and DIC differed among plant zones, depths, and month, while DOC averaged 1 mM regardless of depth, time, or zone. CH4 and DIC increased linearly with depth in NY and PR, while both forms remained low (<0.25 mmole/L CH4 and <1.5 mmole/L DIC), between 2 and 20 cm in JU in most months. Temporal patterns were also distinct among zones. CH4 had limited seasonal fluctuations in NY and PR but had a distinct summer peak in JU. Conversely, DIC was highly seasonal in NY and PR, but not JU. Correlations between CH4 or DIC and plant density or production were limited to 3 of 12 possible zone-depth combinations. Nonetheless, spatial and temporal patterns of CH4 and DIC revealed significant differences among habitats, and suggest a species-specific influence on local C cycling within the wetland.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartlett KB, Harriss RC (1993) Review and assessment of methane emissions from wetlands. Chemosphere 26:209–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beer J, Lee K, Whiticar M, Blodau C (2008) Geochemical controls on anaerobic organic matter decomposition in a northern peatland. Limnology and Oceanography 53:1393–1407

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berg P, Risgaard-Petersen N, Rysgaard S (1998) Interpretation of measured concentration profiles in sediment pore water. Limnology and Oceanography 43:1500–1510

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blodau C, Roulet NT, Heitmann T, Stewart H, Beer J, Lafleur P, Moore TR (2007) Belowground carbon turnover in a temperate ombrotrophic bog. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 21:GB1021. doi:10.1029/2005GB002659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter SM (1995) Herbivory by Donacia rufescens Lacordaire and Donacia cincticornis Newman on the white water-lily, Nymphaea odorata Aiton. M.S. Thesis, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

  • Chanton JP, Dacey JWH (1991) Effects of vegetation on methane flux, reservoirs, and carbon isotopic composition. In: Sharkey T, Holland E, Mooney H (eds) Trace gas emissions from plants. Academic, San Diego, pp 165–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Cherry JA, Ward AK, Ward GM (2009) The dynamic nature of land-water interfaces: changes in structure and productivity along a water depth gradient in the Talladega Wetland Ecosystem. Internationale Vereiningung für Theoretische und angewandte Limnologie Verhandlungen 30:977–980

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles JRP, Yavitt JB (2004) Linking belowground carbon allocation to anaerobic CH4 and CO2 production in a forested peatland, New York State. Geomicrobiology Journal 21:445–455

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Colt J (1984) Computation of dissolved gas concentrations in water as a function of temperature, salinity, and pressure. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 14, Bethesda

    Google Scholar 

  • Dacey JWH, Klug MJ (1979) Methane efflux from lake sediments through water lilies. Science 203:1253–1255

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ding W, Cai Z, Tsuruta H (2005) Plant species effects on methane emissions from freshwater marshes. Atmospheric Environment 39:3199–3207

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drever JI (1982) The geochemistry of natural waters. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Ervin GN, Wetzel RG (1997) Shoot: root dynamics during growth stages of the rush Juncus effusus L. Aquatic Botany 59:63–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiedler S, Höll BS, Freibauer A, Stahr K, Drösler M, Schloter M, Jungkunst HF (2008) Particulate organic carbon (POC) in relation to other pore water carbon fractions in drained and rewetted fens in Southern Germany. Biogeosciences 5:1615–1623

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton SK, Sippel SJ, Melack JM (1995) Oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide and methane production in waters of the Pantanal wetland of Brazil. Biogeochemistry 30:115–141

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Karjalainen H, Stefansdottir G, Tuominen L, Kairesalo T (2001) Do submersed plants enhance microbial activity in sediments? Aquatic Botany 69:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kettunen A (2003) Connecting methane fluxes to vegetation cover and water table fluctuations at microsite level: a modeling study. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 17:1051. doi:10.1029/2002GB001958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Mer J, Roger P (2001) Production, oxidation, emission and consumption of methane by soils: a review. European Journal of Soil Biology 37:25–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom LS (1997) Abundance, biomass, and primary productivity of the heterophyllous macrophyte, Proserpinaca palustris L. (Haloragaceae), in a southeastern wetland. M.S. thesis, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

  • Mann CJ, Wetzel RG (1995) Dissolved organic carbon and its utilization in a riverine wetland ecosystem. Biogeochemistry 31:99–120

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mann CJ, Wetzel RG (2000a) Hydrology of an impounded lotic wetland—wetland sediment characteristics. Wetlands 20:23–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann CJ, Wetzel RG (2000b) Hydrology of an impounded lotic wetland—subsurface hydrology. Wetlands 20:33–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philippot L, Hallin S, Börjesson G, Baggs EM (2009) Biochemical cycling in the rhizosphere having an impact on global change. Plant and Soil 321:61–81

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Picek T, Cizkova H, Dusek J (2007) Greenhouse gas emissions from a constructed wetland: plants as important sources of carbon. Ecological Engineering 31:98–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pulliam WM (1993) Carbon dioxide and methane exports from a southeastern floodplain swamp. Ecological Monographs 63:29–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roden EE, Wetzel RG (1996) Organic carbon oxidation and suppression of methane production by microbial Fe(III) oxide reduction in vegetated and unvegetated freshwater wetland sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 41:1733–1748

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman E, Bouchard V (2007) Regulation of carbon processes by macrophyte species in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Wetlands 27:1134–1143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smemo KA, Yavitt JB (2006) A multi-year perspective on methane cycling in a shallow peat fen in central New York State, USA. Wetlands 26:20–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smialek J, Bouchard V, Lippmann B, Quigley M, Granata T, Martin J, Brown L (2006) Effects of a woody (Salix nigra) and an herbaceous (Juncus effusus) macrophyte species on methane dynamics and denitrification. Wetlands 26:509–517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorrell BK, Boon PI (1992) Biogeochemistry of billabong sediments. II. Seasonal variation in methane production. Freshwater Biology 27:435–445

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sorrell BK, Brix H, Schierup HH, Lorenzen B (1997) Die-back of Phragmites australis: Influence on the distribution and rate of sediment methanogenesis. Biogeochemistry 36:173–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stainton MP (1973) A syringe gas-stripping procedure for gas-chromatographic determination of dissolved inorganic and organic carbon in fresh water and carbonates in sediments. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 30:1441–1445

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley EH, Ward AK (1997) Inorganic nitrogen regimes in an Alabama wetland. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 16:820–832

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley EH, Johnson MD, Ward AK (2003) Evaluating the influence of macrophytes on algal and bacterial production in multiple habitats of a freshwater wetland. Limnology and Oceanography 48:1101–1111

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steinmann P, Eilrich B, Leuenberger M, Burns SJ (2008) Stable carbon isotope composition and concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in the deep catotelm of a peat bog. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72:6015–6026

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Nat FJA, Middelburg JJ (1998) Effects of two common macrophytes on methane dynamics in freshwater sediments. Biogeochemistry 43:79–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang ZP, Lindau CW, Delaune RD, Patrick WH (1993) Methane emission and entrapment in flooded rice soils as affected by soil properties. Biology and Fertility of Soils 16:163–168

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Welsch M, Yavitt JB (2007) Microbial CO2 production, CH4 dynamics and nitrogen in a wetland soil (New York State, USA) associated with three plant species (Typha, Lythrum, Phalaris). European Journal of Soil Science 58:1493–1505

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wetzel RG, Howe MJ (1999) High production in a herbaceous perennial plant achieved by continuous growth and synchronized population dynamics. Aquatic Botany 64:111–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whalen SC (2005) Biogeochemistry of methane exchange between natural wetlands and the atmosphere. Environmental Engineering Science 22:73–94

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Whiting GJ, Chanton JP (1993) Primary production control of methane emissions from wetlands. Nature 364:794–795

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wiesenburg DA, Guinasso NL (1979) Equilibrium solubilities of methane, carbon-monoxide, and hydrogen in water and sea-water. Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data 24:356–360

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yavitt JB (1997) Methane and carbon dioxide dynamics in Typha latifolia (L.) wetlands in central New York State. Wetlands 17:394–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper is in memory of S.M. Evces for her laboratory, field, and day-to-day help and friendship. We thank Mark Peyton and Eric Hellgren for statistical advice and Paul Boon for assistance with the design of pore water samplers, and for the thoughtful comments provided by two anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by NSF-EPSCoR grant OSR-91-08761.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, 680 North Park Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Emily H. Stanley

  2. Aquatic Biology Program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Amelia K. Ward

Authors
  1. Emily H. Stanley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amelia K. Ward
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily H. Stanley.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stanley, E.H., Ward, A.K. Effects of Vascular Plants on Seasonal Pore Water Carbon Dynamics in a Lotic Wetland. Wetlands 30, 889–900 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-010-0087-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-010-0087-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation