Open AccessGreenhouse Gas Fluxes of Mangrove Soils and Adjacent Coastal Waters in an Urban, Subtropical Estuary
Author(s) -
Rose M. Martin,
Cathleen Wigand,
Autumn Oczkowski,
Alana Hanson,
Stephen Balogh,
Benjamin L. Branoff,
Emily Santos,
Evelyn Huertas
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
wetlands
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.703
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1943-6246
pISSN - 0277-5212
DOI - 10.1007/s13157-020-01300-w
Subject(s) - mangrove , environmental science , greenhouse gas , estuary , soil water , blue carbon , subtropics , wetland , hydrology (agriculture) , oceanography , carbon dioxide , ecology , carbon sequestration , soil science , geology , geotechnical engineering , biology
Mangroves are known to sequester carbon at rates exceeding even those of other tropical forests; however, to understand carbon cycling in these systems, soil-atmosphere fluxes and gas exchanges in mangrove-adjacent shallow waters need to be quantified. Further, despite the ever-increasing impact of development on mangrove systems, there is even less data on how subtropical, greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes are affected by urbanization. We quantified carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes from mangrove soils and adjacent, coastal waters along a gradient of urbanization in the densely-populated, subtropical San Juan Bay Estuary (PR). Edaphic (salinity, pH, surface temperature) factors among sites significantly covaried with GHG fluxes. We found that mangrove systems in more highly-urbanized reaches of the estuary were characterized by relatively lower porewater salinities and substantially larger GHG emissions, particularly CH4, which has a high global warming potential. The magnitude of the CO2 emissions was similar in the mangrove soils and adjacent waters, but the CH4 emissions in the adjacent waters were an order of magnitude higher than in the soils and showed a marked response to urbanization. This study underscores the importance of considering GHG emissions of adjacent waters in carbon cycling dynamics in urbanized, tropical mangrove systems.