Landscape and Seasonal Variability in CO2 Efflux from Soil and Water Surfaces in the Northern Pantanal

Abstract:

The Pantanal is one of the largest wetlands in the world, with an area of 150,000 km². It extends over three countries (Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia) with 80% located in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. Ecosystems in the Northern Pantanal rely on a seasonal flood pulse in phase with the wet season, which inundates grasslands and forests between January and May. This pulse results in an important change in local biogeochemistry. Inundation saturates the Pantanal’s soils with changes in the balance of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This study summarize the main CO₂ effluxes measured from a variety of landscape in the Northern Pantanal during dry and wet seasons, fully or partially inundated soils, as part of Project 2.01 of the Brazilian Institute for Science and Technology in Wetlands (Monitoring aquatic carbon fluxes and water quality). Using a network of dataloggers installed in 4 environments, we have been modeling soil CO₂ efflux on a half hourly basis through a combination of infrared gas analyzers measurements and laboratory soil physical parameter estimates. The selected environments presented unique biogeochemical behavior as they relate to inundation and soil type. So far, we have estimated average CO₂ efflux in 3 environments with mean values of 3.53 µmol m^-2 s^-1 (soil CO₂ efflux for the “Carrapatal” tree island), 3.41 µmol m^-2 s^-1 (soil CO₂ efflux for the “Baia das Pedras” tree island), and 1.79 µmol m^-2 s^-1 (aquatic CO₂ evasion from the water surface of the “Cambarazal” flooded forest). More measurements are currently underway to complete the landscape variability in CO₂ effluxes in the Northern Pantanal.