Tower-based greenhouse gas fluxes in a restored tidal freshwater wetland: A shared resource for research and teaching.

The goals of this study are: 1) to use an eddy-covariance system to continuously measure wetland-atmosphere CO2 and CH4 exchange in a restored forested wetland, 2) to quantity C sequestration in plant biomass and soils in restored (Kimages Creek watershed) and old-growth (Harris Creek watershed) forested wetlands, and 3) to establish a shared long-term, shared research and teaching platform centered on eddy-covariance tower measurements. Since the old-growth forest wetland has had longer to accumulate C, the current C stocks are likely much larger than those of the restored wetland; however, the rate of C accumulation (i.e., C sequestration or net ecosystem production) may be higher in young ecosystems (De Simon et al. 2 | Goodrich-Stuart (Stuart-Haëntjens) 2012). While natural wetlands generally offset the warming effect of CH4 emissions by also sequestering large amounts of CO2, but it has been suggested that, in the short-term, this may not hold true for restored wetlands (Petrescu et al. 2015). Very few restored wetlands have studied, however, so knowledge is lacking in this area