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A 3-Year In-Situ Measurement of CO2 Efflux in Coastal Wetlands: Understanding Carbon Loss through Ecosystem Respiration and its Partitioning

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Abstract

Understanding the link between ecosystem respiration (Reco) and its influential factors is necessary to evaluate the sources of gaseous carbon loss in coastal wetlands. Seablite (Suaeda salsa Pall.) is the main vegetation type pioneering temperate coastal wetlands in northeast China, and is generally an understudied wetland type. To evaluate the influence of environmental factors on Reco, a multi-year in-situ experiment was carried out during the growing seasons of 2012 to 2014. Total CO2 efflux was measured and separated further into soil microbial and belowground root respiration (Rs + r) and plant respiration (Rplant). Reco displayed strong seasonal variation, with effluxes as high as 845 to 1150 mg CO2 m−2 h−1 during summer months and as low as 32 to 111 mg CO2 m−2 h−1 during spring (when new shoots are sprouting) and fall (when plants are senescing) months. Aboveground plant structures contributed on average 79% to total plant biomass, and accounted for most of the Reco measured; i.e., 62–96% was associated as Rplant. Plant activity was strongly seasonal, accordingly driving Reco, with 1 g of soil-emergent S. salsa biomass (dry weight) producing approximately 1.58 mg CO2 per hour toward Reco during mid-summer. When water level was below the soil surface, Rs + r was exponentially correlated to air temperature. Because Reco for S. salsa marsh in the Liaohe Delta is controlled by plant growth cycles, inundation regime, and air temperature, this finding may be applied for national carbon budget estimation purposes from S. salsa wetlands throughout Northeast China and potentially close a key gap in understanding the role of this large wetland area in contributing to respiratory CO2 emissions globally.

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Acknowledgements

This study was jointly funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFE0109600), Ministry of Land and Resources program: “Special foundation for scientific research on public causes” (Grant No. 201111023), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41240022 & 40872167), China Geological Survey (Grant Nos. DD20189503, GZH201200503 and DD20160144), and in-kind contributions from the U.S. Geological Survey (through Project Annex No. 6, CH-02.0600) Land Carbon Program and Environments Program. Funding for L. Olsson was provided by Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research and the Danish Council for Independent Research – Natural Sciences (Project 4002-00333B) via a grant to HB. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement of the U.S. Government.

We thank Guangming Zhao, Hongming Yuan, Jin Wang, Xigui Ding, Xiongyi Miao, Jin Liu and other staff of our working group for field and laboratory assistance. We also thank the staff of Reed Institute of Panjin City for the help and convenience they offered. We thank Edward A. Laws from Louisiana State University for assistance with data analysis. Finally, we thank Olivier Pringault, Scott F. Jones, and an anonymous reviewer for the suggestions to improve our manuscript.

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  1. Siyuan Ye

    Present address: China Geological Survey, MLR, Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, 62 Fuzhou Road, Qingdao, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Coastal Wetland Biogeosciences, China Geological Survey, Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xueyang Yu, Siyuan Ye & Mengjie Wei

  2. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Xueyang Yu, Siyuan Ye & Mengjie Wei

  3. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000C, Aarhus, Denmark

    Linda Olsson & Hans Brix

  4. Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research, 8000C, Aarhus, Denmark

    Linda Olsson & Hans Brix

  5. Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Lafayette, Louisiana, 70506, USA

    Ken W. Krauss

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Yu, X., Ye, S., Olsson, L. et al. A 3-Year In-Situ Measurement of CO2 Efflux in Coastal Wetlands: Understanding Carbon Loss through Ecosystem Respiration and its Partitioning. Wetlands 40, 551–562 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-019-01197-0

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