Tidal and Nontidal Marsh Restoration: A Trade-Off Between Carbon Sequestration, Methane Emissions, and Soil Accretion

Support for coastal wetland restoration projects that consider carbon (C) storage as a climate mitigation benefit is growing as coastal wetlands are sites of substantial C sequestration. However, the climate footprint of wetland restoration remains controversial as wetlands can also be large sources of methane (CH4). We quantify the vertical fluxes of C in restored fresh and oligohaline nontidal wetlands with managed hydrology and a tidal euhaline marsh in California's San Francisco Bay-Delta. We combine the use of eddy covariance atmospheric flux measurements with Pb-210-derived soil C accumulation rates to quantify the C sequestration efficiency of restored wetlands and their associated climate mitigation service. Nontidal managed wetlands were the most efficient in burying C on-site, with soil C accumulation rates as high as their net atmospheric C uptake (-280 +/- 90 and -350 +/- 150 g C m(-2) yr(-1)). In contrast, the restored tidal wetland exhibited lower C burial rates over decadal timescales (70 +/- 19 g C m(-2) yr(-1)) that accounted for similar to 13%-23% of its annual C uptake, suggesting that the remaining fraction is exported via lateral hydrologic flux. From an ecosystem radiative balance perspective, the restored tidal wetland showed a > 10 times higher CO2-sequestration to CH4-emission ratio than the nontidal managed wetlands. Thus overall, tidal wetland restoration resulted in a negative radiative forcing (cooling) through increased soil C accumulation, while nontidal wetland restoration led to an early positive forcing (warming) through increased CH4 emissions potentially lasting between 2.1 +/- 2.0 to 8 +/- 4 decades.

Automated summary

The study quantified the efficiency of restored fresh and oligohaline nontidal wetlands as well as tidal wetlands in carbon sequestration in the San Francisco Bay-Delta area. It found that managed wetlands had higher soil C accumulation rates and net atmospheric C uptake, while tidal wetlands exhibited CH4 emissions leading to negative radiative forcing.