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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

Team

Principal Investigator

Kelly Wrighton
Institution
Colorado State University

Co-Investigator(s)

Timothy Morin
Institution
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Eric Ward
Institution
U.S. Geological Survey

Rebecca Daly
Institution
Colorado State University

Jorge Villa
Institution
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Gil Bohrer
Institution
The Ohio State University

Team Members

Jared Ellenbogen
Institution
Colorado State University

Bridget McGivern
Institution
Colorado State University