Alia Al-Haj
Postdoctoral Fellow
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
November 8, 2024, 12:00 PM
Cannon 202 and via ITV in Robinson 206
Hosted by Nicholas Ray
Abstract: Vegetated coastal ecosystems (e.g., seagrasses, marshes, and mangroves) play a key role in C and N cycling at the terrestrial aquatic interface and can help to mitigate global change by storing C in their soils and filtering N out of water. However, the same characteristics that cause vegetated coastal ecosystems to have high C sequestration rates and high N removal rates (e.g., saturated soils and variable salinity) can also lead to methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. In fact, vegetated coastal ecosystems were identified as the largest source of uncertainty in the global CH4 budget and contribute to both naturally- and anthropogenically-derived N2O emissions. Vegetated coastal ecosystems are also subject to both longer term, climate-change driven stressors, such as warming and sea level rise, and more episodic stressors, such as changes in inundation, salinity, temperature, and nitrogen (N) loading, caused by heat waves and hurricanes. These stressors can alter greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can have a disproportionate effect on the annual GHG budget in vegetated coastal ecosystems. We will discuss the interactive impact of multiple short-term stressors and multiple longer-term stressors on GHG emissions from coastal marshes using several mesocosm experiments as case studies.
Zoom Recording ID: 99179954296
UUID: 019GHduGSHiMYBmt1qNxLw==
Meeting Time: 2024-11-08 04:29:46pmGMT