Ken W. Krauss Hans Brix Mengjie Wei Linda Olsson Xueyang Yu Yueying Ma Jin Wang Hongming Yuan Guangming Zhao Xigui Ding Rebecca Moss Siyuan Ye 2016 <p><span>Global management of wetlands to suppress greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, facilitate carbon (C) sequestration, and reduce atmospheric CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>concentrations while simultaneously promoting agricultural gains is paramount. However, studies that relate variability in CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>and CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>emissions at large spatial scales are limited. We investigated three-year emissions of soil CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>and CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>from the primary wetland types of the Liaohe Delta, China, by focusing on a total wetland area of 3287 km</span>²<span>. One percent is<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>Suaeda salsa</i><span>, 24% is<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>Phragmites australis</i><span>, and 75% is rice. While<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>S</i><span>.<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>salsa</i><span><span>&nbsp;</span>wetlands are under somewhat natural tidal influence,<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>P</i><span>.<span>&nbsp;</span></span><i>australis</i><span><span>&nbsp;</span>and rice are managed hydrologically for paper and food, respectively. Total C emissions from CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>and CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>from these wetland soils were 2.9 Tg C/year, ranging from 2.5 to 3.3 Tg C/year depending on the year assessed. Primary emissions were from CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>(~98%). Photosynthetic uptake of CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>would mitigate most of the soil CO</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>emissions, but CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>emissions would persist. Overall, CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>fluxes were high when soil temperatures were &gt;18°C and pore water salinity &lt;18 PSU. CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>emissions from rice habitat alone in the Liaohe Delta represent 0.2% of CH</span>₄<span><span>&nbsp;</span>carbon emissions globally from rice. With such a large area and interannual sensitivity in soil GHG fluxes, management practices in the Delta and similar wetlands around the world have the potential not only to influence local C budgeting, but also to influence global biogeochemical cycling.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1371/journal.pone.0160612 en Public Library of Science Inter-annual variability of area-scaled gaseous carbon emissions from wetland soils in the Liaohe Delta, China article