Salinity Influence on Methane Emissions from Tidal Marshes

• Published in: Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) N.C.), 2011-10, Vol.31 (5), p.831-842
• Main Authors: Poffenbarger, Hanna J., Needelman, Brian A., Megonigal, J. Patrick
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon sequestration; Coastal Sciences; Ecology; Emissions; Environmental Management; Floods; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Greenhouse gases; Hydrogeology; Landscape Ecology; Life Sciences; Marshes; Methane; Pore water; Radiative forcing; Salinity; Salinity effects; Tidal marshes; Wetlands
• ISSN: 0277-5212; 1943-6246
• DOI: 10.1007/s13157-011-0197-0

The relationship between methane emissions and salinity is not well understood in tidal marshes, leading to uncertainty about the net effect of marsh conservation and restoration on greenhouse gas balance. We used published and unpublished field data to investigate the relationships between tidal marsh methane emissions, salinity, and porewater concentrations of methane and sulfate, then used these relationships to consider the balance between methane emissions and soil carbon sequestration. Polyhaline tidal marshes (salinity >18) had significantly lower methane emissions (mean ± sd = 1 ± 2 g m −2  yr −1 ) than other marshes, and can be expected to decrease radiative forcing when created or restored. There was no significant difference in methane emissions from fresh (salinity = 0–0.5) and mesohaline (5–18) marshes (42 ± 76 and 16 ± 11 g m −2  yr −1 , respectively), while oligohaline (0.5–5) marshes had the highest and most variable methane emissions (150 ± 221 g m −2  yr −1 ). Annual methane emissions were modeled using a linear fit of salinity against log-transformed methane flux ( ; r 2  = 0.52; p