Carbon dioxide exchange of a salt marsh in Virginia

Posted on: October 21, 2019

Carbon Dioxide Exchange of a Salt Marsh in Virginia

Jesus Ruiz-Plancarte

The Pennsylvania State University

Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

12 - 1 pm Tuesday, October 22

Room T-424, Steinman Hall, The City College of New York

Abstract

Wetlands at the fringe between the Atlantic Ocean and the terrestrial landscape are in a continuous threat from human activities. In order to assess the state of the marshes of Virginia, we studied the net carbon dioxide exchange to address two related objectives. First, we investigated how local environmental variables and inundation control the seasonal ecosystem carbon assimilation on a low marsh of the Virginia Coast Reserve. A 7-m tower was employed to serve as the platform to measure air temperature, photo-synthetically active radiation,carbon dioxide concentration, and air turbulence. The influence of tides on carbon dioxide exchanges was investigated. A model based on soil temperature was used to evaluate ecosystem respiration, and gross primary productivity was quantified as the difference between net carbon dioxide exchange and respiration. The results show that at the peak of the growing season, almost half of the daytime carbon exchange was suppressed when the marsh was fully flooded.These anoxic conditions caused by tidal inundation reduced ecosystem respiration and limited assimilation of carbon dioxide by the partially submerged plants. Second, we applied a light-use efficiency model to estimate the productivity for the other marshes of the Virginia Coast Reserve. Model results indicate that the gross primary productivity has been decreasing for the region during the last 15 years. While our research addresses the local influence of environment and climate on carbon exchange, its results carry an impact on the global scale. As relative sea levels rise, identifying which regions are most susceptible to shift from carbon sinks to carbon sources is important to mitigate the loss of valuable ecosystem services.

Presenter

Jesse Ruiz-Plancarte is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park. His research specialties are in boundary layer and turbulence, remote sensing, and carbon cycling. He is the recipient of Penn State’s Bunton-Waller Graduate Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation scholarship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Mr. Ruiz Plancarte holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, Irvine, in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

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