Abstract
Coastal salt marshes store large amounts of carbon but the magnitude and
patterns of greenhouse gas (GHG; i.e., carbon dioxide (CO) and methane
(CH)) fluxes are unclear. Information about GHG fluxes from these
ecosystems comes from studies of sediments or at the ecosystem-scale
(eddy covariance) but fluxes from tidal creeks are unknown. We measured
GHG concentrations in water, water quality, meteorology, sediment CO
efflux, ecosystem-scale GHG fluxes, and plant phenology; all at
half-hour time-steps over one year. Manual creek GHG flux measurements
were used to calculate gas transfer velocity () and parameterize a model
of water-to-atmosphere GHG fluxes. The creek was a source of GHGs to the
atmosphere where tidal patterns controlled diel variability. Dissolved
oxygen and wind speed were negatively correlated with creek CH efflux.
Despite lacking a seasonal pattern, creek CO efflux was correlated with
drivers such as turbidity across phenological phases. Overall,
night-time creek CO efflux (3.6 ± 0.63 µmol/m/s) was over two times
higher than night-time marsh sediment CO efflux (1.5 ± 1.23 µmol/m/s).
Creek CH efflux (17.5 ± 6.9 nmol/m/s) was four times lower than
ecosystem-scale CH fluxes (68.1 ± 52.3 nmol/m/s) across the year. These
results suggest that tidal creeks are potential hotspots for CO
emissions and could contribute to lateral transport of CH to the coastal
ocean due to supersaturation of CH (>6000 µmol/mol) in
water This study provides insights for modelling GHG efflux from tidal
creeks and suggests that changes in tide stage overshadow water
temperature in determining magnitudes of fluxes.