Aquatic metabolism influences temporal variations of water carbon and atmospheric carbon dioxide fluxes in a temperate salt marsh

Abstract. Salt marshes are blue carbon (C) ecosystems characterized by intense atmospheric CO2 uptake and C sequestration but also by organic and inorganic C exports through the tide. However, uncertainties about the main biotic factors controlling these vertical and horizontal C fluxes imply studying terrestrial and aquatic metabolisms simultaneously at small timescales (diurnal and tidal) to distinguish their contributions to net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE). In a temperate salt marsh, four sampling 24 h cycles were performed to measure all water C biogeochemical parameters (including CO2 partial pressures, pCO2), nutrients, and aquatic metabolism simultaneously to NEE from high tide during marsh immersion (imported coastal waters influenced by the continental shelf) to low tide during marsh emersion (exported channel waters influenced by the marsh drainage). At high tide, water CO2 oversaturation (water pCO2 > air pCO2) due to marsh aquatic heterotrophy and CO2-concentrated water inputs from the coastal end-member induced water–air CO2 emissions during marsh immersion. At low tide, water pCO2 in the channel were also mainly controlled by the marsh aquatic metabolism, inducing a water CO2 oversaturation in winter due to dominant heterotrophy and a water CO2 undersaturation in spring and summer due to dominant autotrophy. In winter, the greatest increases in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC; from 2354 to 3963 µmol kg−1), total alkalinity (TA; from 2508 to 4016 µmol kg−1) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; from 27.7 to 68.4 µM) were measured simultaneously during low tide at night, probably due to intense aerobic/anaerobic microbial respiration of organic matter in channel waters and/or sediments resulting in the greatest water pCO2 increase (from 533 to 1461 ppmv). On the contrary, in spring and summer, large water pCO2 decreases (down to 83 ppmv) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) increases (up to 1040 µM) from high to low tide could be related to intense autochthonous and allochthonous marsh primary production, including benthic microalgae, phytoplankton and macroalgae. This study suggests that the horizontal exchanges of coastal waters with the salt marsh significantly modify water C dynamics and associated water CO2 sink/source state in the channel due to an intense marsh metabolism (production and respiration). At the daily scale, plant and phytoplankton metabolism rates played a major and a minor role, respectively, in the marsh CO2 sink measured by atmospheric eddy covariance at the ecosystem scale (NEE), even during immersion where emerged plants located on the highest marsh levels can maintain a low CO2 uptake, despite aquatic heterotrophy and associated water–air CO2 emissions.