Journal
ESTUARIES AND COASTS
Volume 41, Issue 8, Pages 2147-2158Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12237-018-0438-z
Keywords
Cladium jamaicense; Florida Everglades; Biogeochemistry; Salinity; Marsh; Peat collapse
Funding
- Florida Sea Grant [R/C-S-56]
- South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)
- Everglades Foundation
- Everglades National Park (ENP)
- National Science Foundation's Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Program [DEB-1237517]
- Florida International University Teaching Assistantship
- FIU Dissertation Year Fellowship
- Florida Sea Grant
- FCE LTER
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1237517] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Coastal wetlands, among the most productive ecosystems, are important global reservoirs of carbon (C). Accelerated sea level rise (SLR) and saltwater intrusion in coastal wetlands increase salinity and inundation depth, causing uncertain effects on plant and soil processes that drive C storage. We exposed peat-soil monoliths with sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) plants from a brackish marsh to continuous treatments of salinity (elevated (similar to 20ppt) vs. ambient (similar to 10ppt)) and inundation levels (submerged (water above soil surface) vs. exposed (water level 4cm below soil surface)) for 18months. We quantified changes in soil biogeochemistry, plant productivity, and whole-ecosystem C flux (gross ecosystem productivity, GEP; ecosystem respiration, ER). Elevated salinity had no effect on soil CO2 and CH4 efflux, but it reduced ER and GEP by 42 and 72%, respectively. Control monoliths exposed to ambient salinity had greater net ecosystem productivity (NEP), storing up to nine times more C than plants and soils exposed to elevated salinity. Submersion suppressed soil CO2 efflux but had no effect on NEP. Decreased plant productivity and soil organic C inputs with saltwater intrusion are likely mechanisms of net declines in soil C storage, which may affect the ability of coastal peat marshes to adapt to rising seas.
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