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Air–Water CO2 Fluxes and Net Ecosystem Production Changes in a Baja California Coastal Lagoon During the Anomalous North Pacific Warm Condition

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Abstract

The present study examines the temporal variability of air–water CO2 fluxes (FCO2) and seawater carbonate chemistry in a Baja California coastal lagoon during an exceptionally warm anomaly that was developed in Northeast Pacific coasts during 2014. This oceanographic condition led to a summer-like season (weak upwelling condition) during the study period, which reached a maximum surface temperature anomaly of 2 °C in September 2014. San Quintín Bay acts as a source of CO2 to the atmosphere in 2014 (3.3 ± 4.8 mmol C m−2 day−1) with the higher positive fluxes mainly observed in summer months (9.0 ± 5.3 mmol C m−2 day−1). Net ecosystem production (NEP) switched seasonally between net heterotrophy and net autotrophy during the study period, with an annual average of 2.2 ± 7.1 mmol C m−2 day−1, which indicates that San Quintín Bay was a net autotrophic system during the atypical warm oceanographic condition in 2014. This pattern of seasonal variations in the carbon balance at San Quintín Bay appears to be linked to the life cycle of benthic communities, which play an important role in the whole-ecosystem metabolism. Under the limited input from external sources coupled with an increase in seawater temperatures, the recycled benthic carbon and nutrient fluxes play a major role to sustain water-column processes within the bay. Since the upwelling condition may influence the magnitude of the air–water CO2 fluxes, our results clearly indicated that San Quintín Bay is a net source of carbon to the atmosphere regardless of the adjacent oceanic conditions. Our study sheds light on the carbon dynamics and its metabolic implications in a shallow coastal ecosystem under a regional warm anomaly and contributes potentially relevant information in view of the likely future scenario of global climate change.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank SEP-CONACYT for the support given for this work through the UABC project Estudio Integral del Ciclo del Nitrógeno en Bahía Falsa, Baja California (ref. no. 10412). We thank the cooperation of the Nautilus hatchery workers from San Quintín for their support in the field, and we appreciate the significant assistance of Dulce Magali López, Nevia Alfaro, Julieta Hernández, and Erika Santacruz during the field sampling and the laboratory analysis and the comments that improved the manuscript. This paper was pleasantly improved and strengthened by the constructive comments of various anonymous reviewers. María Elena Sánchez-Salazar contributed with the editing of the English language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Marinas e Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

    Ma Carmen Ávila-López & Armando Félix Bermúdez

  2. Carr. Transpeninsular Ensenada-Tijuana, No. 3917, Frac. Playitas, 22860, Ensenada, B.C, Mexico

    Ma Carmen Ávila-López, J. Martín Hernández-Ayón, Víctor F. Camacho-Ibar, Armando Félix Bermúdez, Adan Mejía-Trejo, Isaí Pacheco-Ruiz & Jose M. Sandoval-Gil

  3. Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

    J. Martín Hernández-Ayón, Víctor F. Camacho-Ibar, Adan Mejía-Trejo, Isaí Pacheco-Ruiz & Jose M. Sandoval-Gil

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  1. Ma Carmen Ávila-López
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  2. J. Martín Hernández-Ayón
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  3. Víctor F. Camacho-Ibar
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Correspondence to J. Martín Hernández-Ayón.

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Communicated by Alberto Vieira Borges

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Ávila-López, M.C., Hernández-Ayón, J.M., Camacho-Ibar, V.F. et al. Air–Water CO2 Fluxes and Net Ecosystem Production Changes in a Baja California Coastal Lagoon During the Anomalous North Pacific Warm Condition. Estuaries and Coasts 40, 792–806 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-016-0178-x

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