Climatic variability, hydrologic anomaly, and methane emission can turn productive freshwater marshes into net carbon sources.

Freshwater marshes are well-known for their ecological functions in carbon sequestration, but complete carbon budgets that include both methane (CH4 ) and lateral carbon fluxes for these ecosystems are rarely available. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first full carbon balance for a freshwater marsh where vertical gaseous [carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and CH4 ] and lateral hydrologic fluxes (dissolved and particulate organic carbon) have been simultaneously measured for multiple years (2011-2013). Carbon accumulation in the sediments suggested that the marsh was a long-term carbon sink and accumulated ~96.9 ± 10.3 (±95% CI) g C m(-2)  yr(-1) during the last ~50 years. However, abnormal climate conditions in the last 3 years turned the marsh to a source of carbon (42.7 ± 23.4 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) ). Gross ecosystem production and ecosystem respiration were the two largest fluxes in the annual carbon budget. Yet, these two fluxes compensated each other to a large extent and led to the marsh being a CO2 sink in 2011 (-78.8 ± 33.6 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) ), near CO2 -neutral in 2012 (29.7 ± 37.2 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) ), and a CO2 source in 2013 (92.9 ± 28.0 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) ). The CH4 emission was consistently high with a three-year average of 50.8 ± 1.0 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) . Considerable hydrologic carbon flowed laterally both into and out of the marsh (108.3 ± 5.4 and 86.2 ± 10.5 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) , respectively). In total, hydrologic carbon fluxes contributed ~23 ± 13 g C m(-2)  yr(-1) to the three-year carbon budget. Our findings highlight the importance of lateral hydrologic inflows/outflows in wetland carbon budgets, especially in those characterized by a flow-through hydrologic regime. In addition, different carbon fluxes responded unequally to climate variability/anomalies and, thus, the total carbon budgets may vary drastically among years.

Assessing potential removal of low-head dams in urban settings: an example from the Ottawa River, NW Ohio.

This is a study of the scientific component of an effort to restore an urban river by removing a low-head dam. The Secor Dam is owned by a local government entity near Toledo, Ohio. The proposed removal of the last structure impeding flow on the Ottawa River has broad appeal, but the owner is concerned about liability issues, particularly potential changes to the flood regime, the presence of contaminated sediments behind the dam, and possible downstream transport of reservoir sediments. Assessing sediment contamination involved sediment sampling and analysis of trace metals and organic contaminants. Forecasting sediment transport involved field methods to determine the volume and textural properties of reservoir and upstream sediment and calculations to determine the fate of reservoir sediments. Forecasting changes in the flood regime involved HEC-RAS hydrological models to determine before and after dam removal flood scenarios using LiDAR data imported into an ArcGIS database. The resulting assessment found potential sediment contamination to be minor, and modeling showed that the removal of the dam would have minimal impacts on sediment transport and flood hazards. Based on the assessment, the removal of the dam has been approved by its owners.