Eddy Covariance Tower for Assessing Spatial and Temporal Variability in Subsurface Biogeochemical Processes in Coastal Wetlands and their Impacts on Water Quality
Abstract
SummaryCoastal wetlands provide many valuable benefits to humans, including improving water quality. Currently, our ability to understand the processes that control water pollution in coastal wetlands is hampered by insufficient quantitative understanding of controlling biogeochemical processes in this complex environment and how these processes change across different wetland types. Many of the processes that control pollutant fate and transport occur below the ground through complex microbially mediated processes that vary considerably both spatially and temporally as a result of a myriad of environmental conditions (e.g., soil properties, inundation, vegetation, temperature, nutrient and carbon availability, salinity, pH and redox). The emission and/or uptake of several gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) that are consumed and/or produced in these processes can reflect the integrated subsurface biogeochemistry in wetlands. However, due to the large spatial and temporal variability in gas emissions from these systems, plot-scale estimates of gas fluxes are uncertain. The preferred technique today for accurate estimating gas fluxes, which permits calculation of seasonal and annual emissions and inventories, is the eddy correlation/covariance method. To our knowledge there are no eddy covariance towers operating in tidally impacted coastal wetlands directly connected and influenced by the ocean in California. This proposal seeks to build and operate two portable eddy covariance towers to collect continuous measurements of gas emissions in a coastal wetland in conjunction with ongoing projects to quantify the fate and transport of pollutants and nutrients. This will allow for better assessment of the processes that affect pollutant transport and water quality in coastal wetlands, inform reaction transport models, and allow for mesoscale assessment of processes operating in the wetlands. Data obtained using the eddy covariance towers will contribute to several current and future education and research projects, provide hands-on research experience opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, and be instrumental to justifying more education and process-based research in future proposals. Obtaining and operating eddy covariance towers to assess gas emissions in coastal wetlands in California and the relation of these emission fluxes to subsurface biogeochemical processes and other environmental parameters will allow for the first time to link gas dynamics on multiple spatial and temporal scales to water quality. The authentic data generated using the towers would be included in several teaching modules to increase the effectiveness of STEM teaching and learning and the operation of the towers would provide exciting research opportunities relevant to the DoD for undergraduate and graduate student, including underrepresented minorities in STEM. The data will also enable coupling of models of different scale - from nano and microscale biogeochemical reaction transport models to Earth System Models that include pollutant transport and water quality with realistic predictions of emissions from coastal/tidal wetlands, based on reliable gas emission data. The results are also be crucial for performing a quantitative economic assessment of wetland ecosystem services and identifying settings of high risk for water pollution. To our knowledge no study to date has reported gas emissions from coastal wetlands in California that accurately capture the spatial and temporal variability in these fluxes and relate them to subsurface biogeochemistry. The results of this project, facilitated by the eddy covariance towers, will improve our understanding and teaching quality on the processes that control gas emissions from coastal wetlands and how emissions are linked to subsurface processes that control pollutant fate and transport. This information will help conservation/restoration decisions and the financing and methodological guidance for pollutant r
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 25, 2021
- Source ID
- W911NF2110202
Entities
People
- Adina Paytan
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of California, Santa Cruz