Oral Presentation Society for Freshwater Science 2025 Annual Meeting

Variable connectivity to the open water environment drives greenhouse gas concentrations in Great Lakes coastal wetlands (117242)

Amanda K Suchy 1 , Casey Godwin 2 , Donald Uzarski 1
  1. Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, United States
  2. Michigan State University, Ann Arbor, MI

Coastal wetlands have the potential to act as hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to their high productivity and anthropogenic impacts. The Laurentian Great Lakes, one of the largest bodies of surface freshwater, has very few comprehensive measurements of GHG emissions from their associated wetlands. We leveraged the Coastal Wetlands Monitoring Program to collect data on dissolved GHG concentrations in over 100 wetlands across the Great Lakes Basin in summer 2023 and 2024. Samples were collected from the adjacent open water environment and 1-3 vegetation zones within each wetland. Dissolved gasses were extracted from water samples on site and later analyzed for CH4, and N2O concentrations. Results are reported as the observed gas concentration divided by the expected gas concentration of the water was at atmospheric equilibrium. We found CH4 concentrations were greater than atmospheric equilibrium in all samples ranging from 192x expected CH4 at atmospheric equilibrium to greater than 36,000x the expected concentration. Concentrations of N2O ranged from near equilibrium values to 20x the expected concentrations. We also found that wetlands generated more CH4 but less N2O than the adjacent open water environment. Greenhouse gas concentrations in lacustrine wetlands also appeared to be less impacted by nearby land use when compared to riverine or barrier protected wetlands, where we observer greater CH4 and N2O emissions in wetland associated with more agriculture land use. These data demonstrate Great Lakes coastal wetlands can generate substantial GHG emissions, but patterns are likely driven by complex dynamics of oxygen availability and limiting substrates impacted by variable connectivity to the open water environment.