MarshFlux was a European Union Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement 838296 from January 2020 to January 2023. The project was jointly-hosted by the University of Birmingham U.K and McGill University Canada with Dr. Sami Ullah (nitrogenscience.wordpress.com/), Prof. Gail Chmura (chmuralab.weebly.com/) and Prof. Stefan Krause (www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/gees/krause-stefan.aspx) as collaborators. The first two years were based at McGill University and the final year at the University of Birmingham, U.K.
Overview
Coastal wetlands are globally important ecosystems providing valuable ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration over long timescales, affecting global carbon cycling and climate modulation, and nutrient cycling. The amount of carbon sequestered and therefore, the net long-term global cooling potential of coastal marshes, however, is affected by complex biogeochemical reactions in marsh soils, which may produce and/or consume all three of the major greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O). The magnitude and direction of these fluxes, and whether marsh soils act as a source or sink of greenhouse gases, is affected by a variety of environmental factors which are predicted to vary with projected global change. MarshFlux, therefore, aimed to address fundamental gaps in understanding of how the global cooling potential of coastal marshes will be affected by responses of biogeochemical reaction rates and greenhouse gas fluxes to global change. The effect of multiple drivers of global change on the response of greenhouse gas fluxes and key microbial processes for the consumption and production of N2O, were investigated focussing on temperature and nutrient-loading and vegetation. This research is critical for effective management of coastal wetlands to maintain their blue carbon value under future global change.
objectives
- How do salt marsh soil greenhouse gas fluxes vary across a latitudinal gradient subject to predicted future increases in temperature and nutrient loading?
- How do greenhouse gas fluxes vary within a salt marsh under varying pressures including sea level rise, degradation and invasive vegetation?
- How do salt marsh greenhouse gas fluxes vary between vegetation types with differing characteristics subject to changes in temperature, nutrients and flooding?
OUTPUTS
Comer-Warner, S. A., Ullah, S., Dey, A., Stagg, C. L., Elsey-Quirk, T., Swarzenski, C. M., Sgouridis, F., Krause, S. and Chmura, G. L. (2023) Elevated temperature and nutrients lead to increased N2O emissions from salt marsh soils from cold and warm climates. Biogeochemistry. 1-17. DOI: 10.1007/s10533-023-01104-0
Comer-Warner, S. A., Ullah, S., Ampuero Reyes, W., Krause, S., and Chmura, G. (2022) CH4 emissions from Spartina alterniflora are higher than from invasive Phragmites australis and other elevation zones in a St. Lawrence Estuary Salt Marsh. Environmental Research: Ecology. 1, 011003. DOI: 10.1088/2752-664X/ac706a
Comer-Warner, S. A., Ullah, S., Ampuero Reyes, W., Krause, S., and Chmura, G. (2022) CH4 emissions from Spartina alterniflora are higher than from invasive Phragmites australis and other elevation zones in a St. Lawrence Estuary Salt Marsh. Environmental Research: Ecology. 1, 011003. DOI: 10.1088/2752-664X/ac706a