Understanding the controls on primary production and carbon balance in a Typha marsh

This project took place in the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve (SJFM), which is located on UCI’s campus. The study provided a local opportunity to learn, develop, and test techniques while investigating why marshes are among the most productive ecosystems. The SJFM is a long rectangle, about 1000 by 300 m, which is aligned long axis into the predictable sea breeze. The rectangle is divided into two ponds at the 500-m mark and eddy covariance instruments were operated on towers installed on floating docks in each pond.

The marsh project was important to our research program for four reasons. First, the science was interesting and relatively new; there are many eddy covariance datasets for forests whereas wetlands have been undersampled. Second, the layout of the marsh, with two ponds separated by a dike, opened the possibility of a controlled, paired experiment to look at the effect of manipulated water table. Third, the proximity of the marsh to our lab, and the security of the site, allowed efficient testing of equipment prior to deployment at remote sites. We operated prototype systems destined for Canada and Brazil at the marsh before deployment; this step contributed to the success we had with these remote projects. Finally, the installation provided an excellent teaching resource for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Data from the study are available at http://www.ess.uci.edu/~marsh/.

Publications
Photosynthetic acclimation within individual Typha latifolia leaf segments AQUATIC BOTANY Volume: 111 Pages: 54-61 Tinoco Ojanguren, Clara; Goulden, Michael L.

Drought legacies influence the long-term carbon balance of a freshwater marsh Journal of Geophysical Research (0148-0227) 115:G3, 2010 Rocha, Adrian V.; Goulden, Michael L.

Why is marsh productivity so high? New insights from eddy covariance and biomass measurements in a Typha marsh Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (01681923) 149:1, 2009 Rocha, Adrian V.; Goulden, Michael L.

Large interannual CO2 and energy exchange variability in a freshwater marsh under consistent environmental conditions Journal of Geophysical Research (0148-0227) 113:G4, 2008 Rocha, Adrian V.; Goulden, Michael L.

Standing litter as a driver of interannual CO2 exchange variability in a freshwater marsh Journal of Geophysical Research (0148-0227) 113:G4, 2008 Rocha, A. V.; Potts, D. L.; Goulden, M. L.

Factors that control Typha marsh evapotranspiration Aquatic Botany 86:N/A, 2007 Goulden, M. L.; Litvak, M.; Miller, S. D.