1311713 (Schafer), 1311796 (Jaffe), and 1311547 (Bohrer). This RAPID will evaluate the consequences on greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes of ?superstorm? Sandy in a temperate urban coastal wetland in New Jersey. Ongoing experiments have already been providing baseline data for more than a year of intensive measurements of carbon dioxide and methane fluxes with the eddy covariance technique, methane fluxes with the chamber technique and below ground porewater measurements. With this baseline data, it is possible to characterize the impact Sandy had and will continue to have on the processes governing methane release and carbon dioxide emission and uptake. Advanced remote sensing analysis will be conducted to map the storm disturbance to wetland vegetation at very high resolution, and additional chamber measurements will target locations where specific types of disturbances occurred (uprooting, wind damage, flood-sediment cover). The production, emission and uptake of methane and CO2 from the wetland as a whole will be determined using eddy-covariance measurements, and the relative rates of carbon and methane cycling in specific microsites will be quantified, along a gradient of disturbance and among different vegetation types, including native and invasive vegetation. The effects of the storm, in terms of greenhouse gas budget of the wetland and its microsites from a few days to a year following the storm, will be determined. Regular monitoring of eddy flux, chamber measurements and porewater will continue longer than a year as part of an on-going CBET/ENG/NSF project. This study will provide the first report of the greenhouse gas response (including methane) of a coastal wetland to the effects of a large storm. The insight from this study could further inform the scientific and land-management communities about the role of wetlands, and the vulnerability of their ecosystem service, in terms of GHG, to storms and future climate that may include stronger and more frequent storm events. Results will be communicated to the many visitors at the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute (MERI) that offers a wide range of workshops and educational activities for high school students in the area and hosts research symposia with scholars from the New Jersey and New York area. Sharing the insights of this research will also be made available to the Meadowlands Commission, which is the policy arm of MERI and thus may have management implications.
The New Jersey Meadowlands (NJM) were hit by Hurricane Sandy in Fall of 2012, destroying property and flooding many areas along the Hackensack River, where our research sites are located. The storm flooded our measurements sites and disrupted a continuous measurements campaign that started in 2009. In collaboration of Rutgers University-Newark, The Ohio State University and Princeton University, the measurements infrastructure was fixed 6 weeks after the storm hit and belowground and aboveground methane pools and fluxes continued to be investigated, as well as carbon dioxide fluxes with the eddy covariance technique. Our relatively long term measurements before the storm and quick recovery after the storm provide unique insight to the effects of such large scale event on green-house gasses from coastal wetlands. Although measurements of methane fluxes with the chamber technique are not different in 2012 and 2013 (or pre and post Sandy) suggesting no long-term effect caused by hurricane Sandy, the belowground methane pool however, seems to have been affected by the storm. The measurements of the seasonal belowground methane pool indicated significant methane degasing during the storm. However, given how late in the season Hurricane Sandy hit, the existing methane pool was already rather low, as compared to what it typically is during the summer. Therefore, the overall effect of a major storm like Hurricane Sandy had very little long-term effect on the methane dynamics of this urban tidal estuary, but may have caused a large one-time flux of methane that would have been avoided if this amount of methane remained in the ground where at least some of it would have slowly oxidized. Likewise, the carbon dioxide fluxes in a restored and in a natural wetland showed opposing trends with 2012 showing lower fluxes in the restored site than in 2013 and in the natural wetlands higher fluxes in 2012 than in 2013. Thus, the overall effects of Hurricane Sandy on carbon dioxide fluxes on this urban estuary are very low. This insight will allow better understanding of the role of large storm surges in the coastal green-house gas budgets. Future climate is predicted to include more frequent and larger storm and flood events. We show that coastal wetlands are highly resilient to the effects of such storms, which should provide additional justification for their conservation and recovery. Nonetheless, the large methane emission surge that was driven by rapid emptying of the soil storage of methane may not be negligible and should be accounted for in future climate models. The project facilitated the recovery of an important set of observational infrastructure that is continuously monitoring the ecosystem function of coastal wetlands in NJ. The project outcomes have been incorporated into teaching modules for environmental science education in K-12 through a master student participating in the project in addition to training graduate and undergraduate students in ecology, hydrology and engineering sciences.
