Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Hydrologic Context Alters Greenhouse Gas Feedbacks of Coastal Wetland Salinization

  • Published:
Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Changes in sea-level rise and precipitation are altering patterns of coastal wetland hydrology and salinization. We conducted paired laboratory (20 weeks) and field (15 weeks) marine salt addition experiments to disentangle the effects of hydrology (permanent versus intermittent flooding) and elevated marine salts (sulfate versus other salt ions) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from freshwater forested wetland soils. Marine salt additions strongly affected GHG emissions in both experiments, but the magnitude, and even the direction, of GHG responses depended on the hydrologic context in which marine salt exposure occurred. Under permanent flooding, carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes were unaffected by marine salts, whereas methane (CH4) fluxes were significantly suppressed by the addition of sulfate (as K2SO4) both with and without marine salts. In contrast, in intermittently flooded field and laboratory soils elevated salinity reduced carbon mineralization and CO2 fluxes, but enhanced CH4 fluxes relative to both controls and treatments with elevated sulfate. Thus, elevated salinity or alkalinity (and not sulfate) controlled both gaseous carbon fluxes under intermittent flooding. Nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes had contrasting responses in the field and laboratory. In the laboratory, N2O fluxes were not significantly related to chemical treatment but increased with porewater ammonium concentrations, which increased in salinity treatments via cation exchange. In intermittently flooded field conditions, elevated salinity strongly suppressed N2O fluxes because ammonium did not accumulate in porewater; it was likely lost through advection, dispersion, or plant uptake. Understanding dynamic hydrologic and vegetation patterns across wetland landscapes will be critical for predicting both the magnitude and direction of wetland GHG responses to increasing marine salt across broad spatial scales.

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

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • APHA. 1998. Standard method for examination of water and wastewater. Washington DC: American Public Health Association Publication, APHA, AWWA, WEF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardón M, Morse JL, Doyle MW, Bernhardt ES. 2010. The water quality consequences of restoring wetland hydrology to a large agricultural watershed in the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Ecosystems 13:1060–78.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ardón M, Morse JL, Colman B, Bernhardt ES. 2013. Drought-induced saltwater incursion leads to increased wetland nitrogen export. Global Change Biology 19:2976–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ardón M, Helton AM, Bernhardt ES. 2018. Salinity effects on greenhouse gas emissions from wetland soils are contingent upon hydrologic setting: a microcosm experiment. Biogeochemistry 140:217–32.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bertin C, Yang X, Weston LA. 2003. The role of root exudates and allelochemicals in the rhizosphere. Plant and Soil 256:67–83.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattachan A, Emanuel RE, Ardón M, BenDor TK, Bernhardt ES, Wright JP. 2018. Evaluating the effects of climate and land-use changes on vulnerability of coastal landscapes to saltwater intrusion. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 6(1):62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boon PI, Mitchell A, Lee K. 1997. Effects of wetting and drying on methane emissions from ephemeral floodplain wetlands in south-eastern Australia. Hydrobiologia 357:73–87.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brettar I, Rheinheimer G. 1991. Denitrification in the central Baltic – evidence for H2S-oxidation as motor of denitrification at the oxic-anoxic interface. Marine Ecology Progress Series 77:157–69.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Burgin AJ, Hamilton SK, Jones SE, Lennon JT. 2012. Denitrification by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria in a eutrophic lake. Aquatic Microbial Ecology 66(3):283–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caraco NF, Cole JJ, Likens GE. 1989. Evidence for sulphate controlled phosphorus release from the sediments of aquatic systems. Nature 34:316–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter LJ. 1975. Agriculture: a new frontier in coastal North Carolina. Science 189:271–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carter MR. 1993. Soil Sampling and Methods of Analysis. Lewis Publishers: Canadian Society of Soil Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambers LG, Davis SE, Troxler T, Boyer JN, Downey-Wall A, Scinto LJ. 2014. Biogeochemical effects of simulated sea level rise on carbon loss in an Everglades mangrove peat soil. Hydrobiologia 726:195–211.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers LG, Reddy KR, Osborne TZ. 2011. Short-Term Response of Carbon Cycling to Salinity Pulses in a Freshwater Wetland. Soil Science Society of America Journal 75:2000–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cline JD. 1969. Spectrophotometric determination of hydrogen sulfide in natural waters. Limnology and Oceanography 14:454–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad R. 1995. Methane emission from hypersaline microbial mats: lack of aerobic methane oxidation activity. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 16:297–305.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Corbett DR, Vance D, Letrick E, Mallinson D, Culver S. 2007. Decadal-scale sediment dynamics and environmental change in the Albemarle Estuarine System, North Carolina. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 71:729–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craft CB. 2012. Tidal freshwater forest accretion does not keep pace with sea level rise. Global Change Biology 18:3615–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • dos Santos Afonso M, Stumm W. 1992. Reductive Dissolution of Iron (III) (Hydr)oxides by Hydrologen Sulfide. Langmuir 8:1671–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ensign SH, Noe GB. 2018. Tidal extension and sea-level rise: recommendations for a research agenda. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1745.

  • Freeman C, Lock MA, Hughes S, Reynolds B, Hudson JA. 1997. Nitrous Oxide Emissions and the Use of Wetlands for Water Quality Amelioration. Environmental Science and Technology 31(8):2438–40.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs MM. 1979. A simple method for the rapid determination of iron in natural waters. Water Research 13:295–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helton AM, Bernhardt ES, Fedders A. 2014. Biogeochemical regime shifts in coastal landscapes: The contrasting effects of saltwater incursion and agricultural pollution on greenhouse gas emissions from a freshwater wetland. Biogeochemistry 120:133–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helton AM, Ardón M, Bernhardt ES. 2015. Thermodynamic constraints on the utility of ecological stoichiometry for explaining global biogeochemical patterns. Ecology Letters 18:1049–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Herbert E, Boon P, Burgin AJ, Neubauer SC, Franklin RB, Ardón M, Hopfensperger KN, Lamers L, Gell P. 2015. A global perspective on wetland salinization: Ecological consequences of a growing threat to freshwater wetlands. Ecosphere 6(10):1–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joye SB, Hollibaugh JT. 1995. Influence of sulfide inhibition of nitrification on nitrogen regeneration in sediments. Science 270:623–5.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keller JK, Bridgham SD. 2007. Pathways of anaerobic carbon cycling across an ombrotrophic-minerotrophic peatland gradient. Limnology and Oceanography 52:96–107.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keller JK, Takagi KK. 2013. Solid-phase organic matter reduction regulates anaerobic decomposition in a bog soil. Ecosphere 4:2–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley CA, Martens CS, Ussler W. 1995. Methane dynamics across a tidally flooded riverbank margin. Limnology and Oceanography 40:1112–29.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kester DR, Duedall IW, Connors DN, Pytkowicz RM. 1967. Preparation of Artificial Seawater. Limnology and Oceanography 12:176–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kroeger KD, Crooks S, Moseman-Valtierra S, Tang J. 2017. Restoring tides to reduce methane emissions in impounded wetlands: a new and potent Blue Carbon climate change intervention. Scientific Reports 7:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12138-4.

  • Liu L, Greaver TL. 2009. A review of nitrogen enrichment effects on three biogenic GHGs : the CO2 sink may be largely offset by stimulated N2O and CH4 emission. Ecology Letters 12:1103–17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Livingston GP, Hutchinson GL. 1995. Enclosure-based measurement of trace-gas exchange: applications and sources of error. Matson PA, Harriss RC, editors. Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring Emissions from Soil and Water. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Science. p 14–51.

  • Luo M, Zeng CS, Tong C, Huang JF, Chen K, Liu FQ. 2016. Iron reduction along an inundation gradient in a tidal sedge (Cyperus malaccensis) marsh: the rates, pathways, and contributions to anaerobic organic matter mineralization. Estuaries and Coasts 39(6):1679–93.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Luo M, Huang JF, Zhu WF, Tong C. 2017. Impacts of increasing salinity and inundation on rates and pathways of organic carbon mineralization in tidal wetlands: a review. Hydrobiologia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3416-8.

  • Ma WK, Bedard-Haughn A, Siciliano SD, Farrell RE. 2008. Relationship between nitrifier and denitrifier community composition and abundance in predicting nitrous oxide emissions from ephemeral wetland soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40(5):1114–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marton JM, Herbert ER, Craft CB. 2012. Effects of salinity on denitrification and greenhouse gas production from laboratory-incubated tidal forest soils. Wetlands 32:347–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matson A, Pennock D, Bedard-Haughn A. 2009. Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from mature forest stands in the boreal forest, Saskatchewan. Canada. Forest Ecology and Management 258(7):1073–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Megonigal JP, Hines M, Visscher PT. 2003. Anaerobic metabolism: linkages to trace gases and aerobic processes. Biogeochemistry 8:317–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michener WK, Blood ER, Bildstein KL, Brinson MM, Gardner LR. 1997. Climate change, hurricanes and tropical storms, and rising sea level in coastal wetlands. Ecological Applications 7:770–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore TR, Dalva M. 1993. The influence of temperature and water table position on carbon dioxide and methane emissions from laboratory columns of peatland soils. Journal of Soil Science 44:651–64.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Morrissey EM, Gillespie JL, Morina JC, Franklin RB. 2014. Salinity affects microbial activity and soil organic matter content in tidal wetlands. Global Change Biology 20(4):1351–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morse JL, Ardón M, Bernhardt ES. 2012. Greenhouse gas fluxes in southeastern U.S. coastal plain wetlands under contrasting land uses. Ecological Applications 22:264–80.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morse JL, Bernhardt ES. 2013. Using 15 N tracers to estimate N2O and N2 emissions from nitrification and denitrification in coastal plain wetlands under contrasting land-uses. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 57(1):635–43.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller P, Jensen K, Megonigal JP. 2016. Plants mediate soil organic matter decomposition in response to sea level rise. Global Change Biology 22:404–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Munns R. 2002. Comparative physiology of salt and water stress. Plant, Cell and Environment 25:239–50.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neubauer SC, Givler K, Valentine S, Megonigal JP. 2005. Seasonal patterns and plant-mediated controls of subsurface wetland biogeochemistry. Ecology 86(12):3334–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neubauer SC. 2013. Ecosystem response of a tidal freshwater marsh experiencing saltwater intrusion and altered hydrology. Estuaries and Coasts 3:491–507.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Neubauer SC, Franklin RB, Berrier DJ. 2013. Saltwater intrusion into tidal freshwater marshes alters the biogeochemical processing of organic carbon. Biogeosciences 10:8171–83.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Osland MJ, Enwright NM, Day RH, Gabler CA, Stagg CL, Grace JB. 2015. Beyond just sea-level rise: considering macroclimatic drivers within coastal wetland vulnerability assessments to climate change. Global Change Biology 22:1–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osborne RI, Bernot MJ, Findlay SE. 2015. Changes in nitrogen cycling processes along a salinity gradient in tidal wetlands of the Hudson River, New York. USA. Wetlands 35(2):323–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierfelice K, Graeme Lockaby B, Krauss K, Conner W, Noe G, Ricker M. 2015. Salinity influences on aboveground and belowground net primary productivity in tidal wetlands. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering 22:D5015002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prigent C, Papa F, Aires F, Rossow WB, Matthews E. 2007. Global inundation dynamics inferred from multiple satellite observations, 1993–2000. Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres 112: D12. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006jd007847.

  • R Core Team. 2013. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org/

  • Rath KM, Rousk J. 2015. Salt effects on the soil microbial decomposer community and their role in organic carbon cycling: A review. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 81:108–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rath KM, Maheshwari A, Rousk J. 2017. The impact of salinity on the microbial response to drying and rewetting in soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 108:17–26.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy KR, DeLaune RD. 2008. Biogeochemistry of Wetlands: Science and Applications. CRC Press.

  • Richardson CJ. 1983. Pocosins: Vanishing wastelands or valuable wetlands? Bioscience 33:626–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ringeval B, de Noblet-Ducoudré N, Ciais P, Bousquet P, Prigent C, Papa F, Rossow WB. 2010. An attempt to quantify the impact of changes in wetland extent on methane emissions on the seasonal and interannual time scales. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 24: https://doi.org/10.1029/2008gb003354.

  • Schimel J, Balser TC, Wallenstein M. 2007. Microbial stress-response physiology and its implications for ecosystem function. Ecology 88:1386–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schoepfer VA, Bernhardt ES, Burgin AJ. 2014. Iron clad wetlands: Soil iron-sulfur buffering determines coastal wetland response to salt water incursion. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 119(12):2209–19.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Segers R. 1998. Methane production and methane consumption: a review of processes underlying wetland methane fluxes. Biogeochemistry 41:23–51.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seitzinger S, Harrison JA, Böhlke JK, Bouwman AF, Lowrance R, Peterson B, Tobias C, Drecht GV. 2006. Denitrification across landscapes and waterscapes: A synthesis. Ecological Applications 16:2064–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Senga Y, Mochida K, Fukumori R, Okamoto N, Seike Y. 2006. N2O accumulation in estuarine and coastal sediments: The influence of H2S on dissimilatory nitrate reduction. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 67:231–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stagg CL, Schoolmaster DR, Krauss KW, Cormier N, Conner WH. 2017. Causal mechanisms of soil organic matter decomposition: deconstructing salinity and flooding impacts in coastal wetlands. Ecology 98:2003–18.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stagg CL, Baustian MM, Perry CL, Carruthers TJB, Hall CT. 2018. Direct and indirect controls on organic matter decomposition in four coastal wetland communities along a landscape salinity gradient. Journal of Ecology 106:655–70.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steinmuller HE, Chambers LG. 2017. Can Saltwater Intrusion Accelerate Nutrient Export from Freshwater Wetland Soils? An Experimental Approach. Soil Science Society of America Journal 82(1):283–92.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stookey LO. 1970. Ferrozine—a new spectrophotometric reagent for iron. Analytical Chemistry 42:779–81.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Storey R, Wyn Jones RG. 1977. Quaternary ammonium compounds in plants in relation to salt resistance. Phytochemistry 16:447–53.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sutter LA, Perry JE, Chambers RM. 2014. Tidal freshwater marsh plant responses to low level salinity increases. Wetlands 34:167–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tipping E, Woof C. 1991. The distribution of humic substances between the solid and aqueous phases of acid organic soils; a description based on humic heterogeneity and charge-dependent sorption equilibria. European Journal of Soil Science 42:437–48.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • West AW, Sparling GP. 1986. Modifications to the substrate-induced respiration method to permit measurement of microbial biomass in soils of differing water contents. Journal of Microbiological Methods 5:177–89.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weston NB, Dixon RE, Joye SB. 2006. Ramifications of increased salinity in tidal freshwater sediments: Geochemistry and microbial pathways of organic matter mineralization. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 111:G01009.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weston NB, Giblin AE, Banta GT, Hopkinson CS, Tucker J. 2010. The effects of varying salinity on ammonium exchange in estuarine sediments of the Parker River, Massachusetts. Estuaries and Coasts 33:985–1003.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weston NB, Vile MA, Neubauer SC, Velinsky DJ. 2011. Accelerated microbial organic matter mineralization following salt-water intrusion into tidal freshwater marsh soils. Biogeochemistry 102:135–51.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • White E, Kaplan D. 2017. Restore or retreat? Saltwater intrusion and water management in coastal wetlands. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability 3(1):e02158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang J, Liu J, Hu X, Li X, Wang Y, Li H. 2013. Effect of water table level on CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions in a freshwater marsh of Northeast China. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 61:52–60.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yates TT, Si BC, Farrell RE, Pennock DJ. 2006. Probability distribution and spatial dependence of nitrous oxide emission: Temporal change in hummocky terrain. Soil Science Society of America Journal 70(3):753–62.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou M, Butterbach-Bahl K, Vereecken H, Bruggemann N. 2017. A meta-analysis of soil salinization effects on nitrogen pools, cycles and fluxes in coastal ecosystems. Global Change Biology 23:1338–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF DEB-1021149 and EF-1713435. We thank Anna Fedders, Brooke Hassett, and Steven Gougherty for field and laboratory assistance. We thank Emily Ury and two anonymous reviewers for feedback that improved the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

    Ashley M. Helton

  2. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

    Marcelo Ardón

  3. Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Emily S. Bernhardt

Authors
  1. Ashley M. Helton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marcelo Ardón
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emily S. Bernhardt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashley M. Helton.

Additional information

Author Contributions

AMH, MA, and ESB designed the research. AMH and MA performed the research. AMH analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. AMH, MA, and ESB discussed results and revised the manuscript.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Helton, A.M., Ardón, M. & Bernhardt, E.S. Hydrologic Context Alters Greenhouse Gas Feedbacks of Coastal Wetland Salinization. Ecosystems 22, 1108–1125 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0325-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0325-2

Key words

Search

Navigation