Seasonal flooding wetland expansion would strongly affect soil and sediment organic carbon storage and carbon-nutrient stoichiometry

Abstract

In the past few decades, many non-flooding uplands (NF) and permanent flooding waters (PF) have been turned into seasonal flooding wetlands (SF) at the global scale. This trend could severely threaten global climate system by changing carbon cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, the effects of SF expansion on soil and sediment organic carbon (SOC) storage and carbon-nutrient stoichiometry are far from clearly understood. Therefore, we explored SOC storage and carbon-nutrient stoichiometry among adjacent NF, SF and PF using 817 samples at 0–100 cm depth increment at Poyang Lake and Shengjin Lake in the middle-lower Yangtze River floodplain, China. The SFs of the two lakes were both Carex lakeshore wetlands. The NF of Shengjin Lake was a near-natural forest, while the NF of Poyang Lake was a disturbed grassland. The results showed that SOC storage at SFs of Poyang Lake and Shengjin Lake was 75.61 and 98.01 Mg C/ha at 0–100 cm depth increment. The difference in SOC storage among nearby NF, SF and PF depended on depth and disturbance. SOC storage at SF was equivalent to that at near-natural NF, but was much higher than that at disturbed NF. SOC storage at SF was 12.62%–24.50% higher than that at PF at 0–30 cm depth increment, but was 15.16%–25.87% lower than that at PF at 0–100 cm depth increment. Edaphic carbon and nutrients followed allometric relationships at most sites and C increased faster than N and P along the depth gradients. Carbon-nutrient stoichiometric relationships at SF and PF were similar, and were more coupled than those at near-natural NF. This research illustrates the strong effects of seasonal flooding on SOC sequestration in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and expands our understanding of carbon cycling in these two ecosystems.