Temperate mire fluctuations from carbon sink to carbon source following changes in water table

Abstract

The generally-accepted paradigm of wetland response to climate change is that water table drawdown and higher temperatures will cause wetlands to switch from a sink to a source of atmospheric carbon. However, it is hard to find a multi-year, ecosystem scale dataset representative of an undisturbed wetland that clearly demonstrates this paradigm on an annual total basis. Here we provide strong empirical confirmation of the above scenario based on six years of continuous eddy-covariance CO2 and CH4 flux measurements in Biebrza Valley, north-eastern Poland. In wet years the mire was a significant sink of atmospheric carbon (down to −270 ± 70 gC-CO2 m−2 yr−1 against +21.8 ± 3.4 gC-CH4 m−2 yr−1 in 2013) whereas in dry years it constituted a substantial carbon source (releasing up to +130 ± 70 gC-CO2 m−2 yr−1 and +2.6 ± 1.4 gC-CH4 m−2 yr−1 in 2015). Our findings demonstrate that the scenario of positive feedback between wetland carbon release and the present climate change trajectory is realistic and support the need of natural wetland preservation or rewetting. Our findings also indicate that conclusions drawn regarding a wetland's response to changing climate can depend strongly on the chosen period of analysis.