Wetland productivity determines trade-off between biodiversity support and greenhouse gas production

Abstract

Establishing wetlands for nutrient capture and biodiversity support may introduce trade-offs between environmentally beneficial functions and detrimental greenhouse gas emissions. Investigating the interaction of nutrient capture, primary production, greenhouse gas production and biodiversity support is imperative to understanding the overall function of wetlands and determining possible beneficial synergistic effects and trade-offs. Here, we present temporally replicated data from 17 wetlands in hemi-boreal Sweden. We explored the relationship between nutrient load, primary producing algae, production of methane and nitrous oxide, and emergence rates of chironomids to determine what factors affected each and how they related to each other. Chironomid emergence rates correlated positively with methane production and negatively with nitrous oxide production, where water temperature was the main driving factor. Increasing nutrient loads reduced methanogenesis through elevated nitrogen concentrations, while simultaneously enhancing nitrous oxide production. Nutrient loads only indirectly increased chironomid emergence rates through increased chlorophyll-a concentration, via increased phosphorus concentrations, with certain taxa and food preference functional groups benefitting from increased chlorophyll-a concentrations. However, water temperature seemed to be the main driving factor for chironomid emergence rates, community composition and diversity, as well as for greenhouse gas production. These findings increase our understanding of the governing relationships between biodiversity support and greenhouse gas production, and should inform future management when constructing wetlands.

Keywords

Chironomidae; greenhouse gasses; nutrient stoichiometry; primary production; trade-offs; wetlands

Published in

Ecology and Evolution
2023, Volume: 13, number: 10, article number: e10619
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Peacock, Michael

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Liverpool

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG6 Clean water and sanitation
SDG13 Climate action
SDG15 Life on land


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10619

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/126850