Vegetation Type and Decomposition Priming Mediate Brackish Marsh Carbon Accumulation Under Interacting Facets of Global Change
Abstract
Coastal wetland carbon pools are globally important, but their response to interacting facets of global change remain unclear. Numerical models neglect species-specific vegetation responses to sea level rise (SLR) and elevated CO2 (eCO2) that are observed in field experiments, while field experiments cannot address the long-term feedbacks between flooding and soil growth that models show are important. Here, we present a novel numerical model of marsh carbon accumulation parameterized with empirical observations from a long-running eCO2 experiment in an organic rich, brackish marsh. Model results indicate that eCO2 and SLR interact synergistically to increase soil carbon burial, driven by shifts in plant community composition and soil volume expansion. Furthermore, newly parameterized interactions between plant biomass and decomposition (i.e. soil priming) reduce the impact of eCO2 on marsh survival, and by inference, the impact of eCO2 on soil carbon accumulation.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[4]
- Virginia Inst. of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA (United States); California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, West Sacramento, CA (United States)
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD (United States)
- Virginia Inst. of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA (United States); Ducks Unlimited, Memphis, TN (United States)
- Virginia Inst. of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation CAREER Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1775348
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019110; SC0014413; EAR‐1654374
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 48; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; accretion; climate; decomposition; productivity; soil; wetland
Citation Formats
Rietl, Anthony J., Megonigal, J. Patrick, Herbert, Ellen R., and Kirwan, Matthew L. Vegetation Type and Decomposition Priming Mediate Brackish Marsh Carbon Accumulation Under Interacting Facets of Global Change. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1029/2020gl092051.
Rietl, Anthony J., Megonigal, J. Patrick, Herbert, Ellen R., & Kirwan, Matthew L. Vegetation Type and Decomposition Priming Mediate Brackish Marsh Carbon Accumulation Under Interacting Facets of Global Change. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl092051
Rietl, Anthony J., Megonigal, J. Patrick, Herbert, Ellen R., and Kirwan, Matthew L. Tue .
"Vegetation Type and Decomposition Priming Mediate Brackish Marsh Carbon Accumulation Under Interacting Facets of Global Change". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl092051. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1775348.
@article{osti_1775348,
title = {Vegetation Type and Decomposition Priming Mediate Brackish Marsh Carbon Accumulation Under Interacting Facets of Global Change},
author = {Rietl, Anthony J. and Megonigal, J. Patrick and Herbert, Ellen R. and Kirwan, Matthew L.},
abstractNote = {Coastal wetland carbon pools are globally important, but their response to interacting facets of global change remain unclear. Numerical models neglect species-specific vegetation responses to sea level rise (SLR) and elevated CO2 (eCO2) that are observed in field experiments, while field experiments cannot address the long-term feedbacks between flooding and soil growth that models show are important. Here, we present a novel numerical model of marsh carbon accumulation parameterized with empirical observations from a long-running eCO2 experiment in an organic rich, brackish marsh. Model results indicate that eCO2 and SLR interact synergistically to increase soil carbon burial, driven by shifts in plant community composition and soil volume expansion. Furthermore, newly parameterized interactions between plant biomass and decomposition (i.e. soil priming) reduce the impact of eCO2 on marsh survival, and by inference, the impact of eCO2 on soil carbon accumulation.},
doi = {10.1029/2020gl092051},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 8,
volume = 48,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Tue Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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