Enhanced decomposition offsets enhanced productivity and soil carbon accumulation in coastal wetlands responding to climate change

Abstract

Coastal wetlands are responsible for about half of all carbon burial in oceans, and their persistence as a valuable ecosystem depends largely on the ability to accumulate organic material at rates equivalent to relative sea level rise. Recent work suggests that elevated CO₂ and temperature warming will increase organic matter productivity and the ability of marshes to survive sea level rise. However, we find in a series of preliminary experiments that organic decomposition rates increase by about 20% per degree of warming. Our measured temperature sensitivity is similar to studies from terrestrial systems, three times as high as the response of salt marsh productivity to temperature warming, and greater than the productivity response associated with elevated CO₂ in C₃ marsh plants. Although the experiments were simple and of short duration, they suggest that enhanced CO₂ and warmer temperatures could actually make marshes less resilient to sea level rise, and tend to promote a release of soil carbon. Simple projections indicate that elevated temperatures will increase rates of sea level rise more than any acceleration in organic matter accumulation, suggesting the possibility of a positive feedback between climate, sea level rise, and carbon emissions in coastal environments.