Sea level rise and more frequent storm surges derived from global climate change, in the long term, may increase emissions of chloroform from coastal degraded forested wetlands and of methyl halides if salt marshes expand, with potential impacts for stratospheric ozone depletion.
Here we present net ecosystem flux measurements of methyl halides from a brackish tidal marsh on the west coast of the United States between April 2016 and June 2017 using the relaxed eddy accumulation method.
Here we report net ecosystem fluxes of light alkenes and isoprene from a semiarid ponderosa pine forest in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA using the relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) technique during the summer of 2014. The light alkenes contribute significantly to the overall biogenic source of reactive hydrocarbons.
With an assumed CCl4 emission rate of 39 Gg year−1, the best estimate of loss processes still underestimates the observed CCl4 (overestimates the decay) over the past 2 decades but to a smaller extent than previous studies. Changes to the rate of CCl4 loss processes, in line with known uncertainties, could bring the model into agreement with in situ surface and remote-sensing measurements, as could an increase in emissions to around 47 Gg year−1.
A large net emission of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) was observed during the growing season. During the non-growing dry season, small but quantifiable carbonyl sulfide (COS) exchange rates were correlated with soil temperature.
We calculate an updated partial lifetime of CCl4 with respect to the soil sink to be 375 (288–536) years, which is 50 to 90% longer than the most recently published best estimates of the soil sink partial lifetime (195 and 245 years).
Natural haloform emissions contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion but there are major unknown or underestimated sources of these gases. This study demonstrates that soil and water at tidal wetlands are important haloform sources, and emissions peak at the forest–marsh transition zone. The low-lying forested wetlands of the south-eastern United States that are facing sea-level rise and seawater intrusion may become hotspots for haloform emission.
Soils from a wheat field showed uptake of CO2 in dark and cool incubations, while showing emissions during either high termperatures or under light conditions. When soils were sterilized, only emissions of COS were observed. This suggests COS produciton is abiotic and facilitated by higher temperatures and/or light.
Very large emissions of CH3Br and CH3Cl were observed at subtropical salt marsh sites in south Texas, largely associated with Batis maritima. Surprisingly large nighttime emissions were observed.