High spatiotemporal variability of methane concentrations challenges estimates of emissions across vegetated coastal ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Coastal methane (CH₄ ) emissions dominate the global ocean CH₄ budget and can offset the "blue carbon" storage capacity of vegetated coastal ecosystems. However, current estimates lack systematic, high-resolution, and long-term data from these intrinsically heterogeneous environments, making coastal budgets sensitive to statistical assumptions and uncertainties. Using continuous CH₄ concentrations, δ¹³ C-CH₄  values, and CH₄  sea-air fluxes across four seasons in three globally pervasive coastal habitats, we show that the CH₄ distribution is spatially patchy over meter-scales and highly variable in time. Areas with mixed vegetation, macroalgae, and their surrounding sediments exhibited a spatiotemporal variability

SUBMITTER: Roth F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9540812 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature