Large increase in CH4 emission following conversion of coastal marsh to aquaculture ponds caused by changing gas transport pathways
2022
Yang, Ping | Lai, Derrick Y.F. | Yang, Hong | Lin, Yongxin | Tong, Chuan | Hong, Yan | Tian, Yalan | Tang, Chen | Tang, Kam W.
Methane emissions from aquatic ecosystems play an important role in global carbon cycle and climate change. Reclamation of coastal wetlands for aquaculture use has been shown to have opposite effects on sediment CH₄ production potential and CH₄ emission flux, but the underlying mechanism remained unclear. In this study, we compared sediment properties, CH₄ production potential, emission flux, and CH₄ transport pathways between a brackish marsh and the nearby reclaimed aquaculture ponds in the Min River Estuary in southeastern China. Despite that the sediment CH₄ production potential in the ponds was significantly lower than the marsh, CH₄ emission flux in the ponds (17.4 ± 2.7 mg m⁻² h⁻¹) was 11.9 times higher than the marsh (1.3 ± 0.2 mg m⁻² h⁻¹). Plant-mediated transport accounted for 75% of the total CH₄ emission in the marsh, whereas ebullition accounted for 95% of the total CH₄ emission in the ponds. CH₄ emission fluxes in both habitat types were highest in the summer. These results suggest that the increase in CH₄ emission following the conversion of brackish marsh to aquaculture ponds was not caused by increased sediment CH₄ production, but rather by eliminating rhizospheric oxidation and shifting the major transport pathway to ebullition, allowing sediment CH₄ to bypass oxidative loss. This study improves our understanding of the impacts of modification of coastal wetlands on greenhouse gas dynamics.
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