Incorporating hydrologic perturbation and microbial processes into carbon budgets from coastal wetland soils
EMSL Project ID
51858
Abstract
Despite their relatively small land coverage, wetlands represent the largest natural source of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, variations in these wetland emission budgets are high, with the highest uncertainty from coastal wetland systems. Accurately predicting net methane fluxes from wetlands depends on multiple interrelated geochemical, ecological, and metabolic constraints that are poorly understood, oversimplified, or missing in global biogeochemical models. To precisely forecast methane emissions today and in the future, the physiological constraints on methanogen activity in wetlands must be identified, a knowledge gap addressed by this proposed EMSL research. Here we designed field and laboratory studies to address current uncertainities in the soil methane cycle. Specifically, we investigate the resiliency or responses of anoxic microbial carbon cycling to fresh and salt water intrusion, a hydrological perturbation expected for coastal wetland soils in light of changing climatic conditions. Collectively, our investigations will illuminate the sources and controls on the terrestrial methane cycle, thereby offering increased realism in predictive process-oriented models of methane flux in wetland soils today and into the future.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2021-10-01
End Date
2023-10-31
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members