Environmental co-limitation on temperature responses of greenhouse gas production in floodplain sediments

Abstract

Despite the rising interest in understanding how climate change could affect the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from river systems, including floodplains, we still lack a mechanistic understanding of how changing environmental conditions, such as moisture and nutrient availability, limit the temperature responses of GHG production in floodplain sediments. To examine the environmental co-limitations on the temperature responses of three major GHGs (CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O) produced in floodplain sediments, sediments from a constructed wetland on the floodplain of the lower Han River were incubated for 24 d at four temperatures spanning 4–28 ℃, under three conditions (closed, open/wetting, and open/drying). The net production of all three GHGs exhibited nonlinear temperature responses with gas-specific patterns and magnitudes of response varying over the incubation period. During the later incubation phase, positive temperature responses were weakened for the net production of CO₂ and CH₄ in the dried treatments, whereas a similar weakening occurred for N₂O production in the wet treatments. This, combined with incubation-induced changes in dissolved organic carbon and its fluorescence components, indicated the lack or excess of moisture and associated changes in O₂ and organic carbon availability as critical co-limiting factors for the temperature responses of GHG production. Warming decreased δ¹³C in the CH₄ emitted from wet and hypoxic sediments, implying a stronger warming effect on CH₄ production over oxidation. Unlike many studies assuming a consistent relationship between temperature and GHG production in sediments irrespective of other environmental conditions, our results suggest that warming effects on the GHG emissions from floodplain sediments would depend on the balance between gas production and consumption under the prevailing constraints of moisture, O₂, and labile carbon availability.