Coastal wetlands store significant amounts of carbon through sequestration. Salt marshes are also known to harbour high densities of crabs, which increase the sediment-atmosphere exchange interface through their burrowing behaviour. We hypothesized that this additional and reactive interface area could mediate gas exchange and, ultimately, could influence carbon sequestration. CO fluxes were measured over patches characterized by different densities of fiddler crab, , burrows within a natural salt marsh located on the coast of Massachusetts (USA). Even accounting for the importance of ecological factors such as differences in organic matter content of the soil and presence of , we demonstrated that CO release increased if local crab burrow density is considered. The increase in vertical CO fluxes linked to burrow density was higher for the non-vegetated areas with respect to patches. By means of burrow casting and morphological analyses of the burrows, we could relate this difference in COfluxes to structural differences of the burrows themselves, which were larger and deeper in the non-vegetated areas. Our results strongly emphasize the importance of including the faunal component, and specifically the dominant burrowing species, in carbon budget assessments for vegetated coastal habitats. This study also emphasizes the critical role of community-scale factors within the salt marsh, which are often overlooked, for large scale carbon budget assessments.

The development of several large-, ‘continental’-scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site-based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross-continental ecological research. It will also enhances the research community capabilities to anticipate and address future global scale ecological challenges to the planet. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross-continental-scale ERIs.

Arctic warming is outpacing the global rate of climate change, with up to 11 degrees C of warming projected by the year 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions follow their current trajectories. Increasing temperatures are expected to result in permafrost thaw, and the combined effects of precipitation changes, soil warming, and active layer deepening are expected to result in net soil drying. While there is widespread agreement that increasing temperatures and active layer depth will release carbon from soils, the effect on vegetative C cycling is less certain. In 2017, we conducted an experiment to examine the effects of soil drying and active layer deepening on primary productivity in Eriophorum vaginatum, a dominant circumpolar Arctic sedge, and the extent to which those effects vary across ecotypes. We harvested E. vaginatum tussocks from three sites along a latitudinal gradient in the Alaskan Arctic, placed them in pots filled with peat soil, and assigned each to one of three drying treatments. In one treatment, the soils were kept saturated with water through the growing season. In the second treatment, rain was excluded in alternating two-week cycles. In the third treatment, rain was also excluded in alternating two-week cycles, and the soil column was approximately doubled in depth to allow deeper drainage. We measured soil moisture, leaf water potential, leaf area index (LAI), leaf-level phenology, and photosynthetic capacity (Amax) in each of the tussocks. We found that the southern ecotype was affected most severely by drying, with reductions in LAI, maximum leaf length, and Amax. We found that effects were greater with rain exclusion and soil column deepening than with rain exclusion alone. However, we found no difference in leaf water potential between populations or treatments, suggesting that E. vaginatum leaves function within a fairly narrow range of moisture conditions. These results demonstrate that changes in soil moisture may affect carbon storage in Arctic vegetation, but that the magnitude of the effect may vary depending on region and ecotype.

Remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) has emerged as a novel approach for terrestrial vegetation monitoring. The in situ continuous optical remote sensing tool in conjunction with concurrent eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements provides a new opportunity to advance terrestrial ecosystem science. Here we introduce a network of ground-based SIF observations at flux tower sites across the mainland China referred as ChinaSpec. Until now, it consists of 15 tower sites including 5 cropland sites, 4 grassland sites, 4 forest sites and 2 wetland sites. At each of these sites, an automated spectroscopy system was deployed to collect continuous super-high resolution spectra for high-frequency SIF retrievals in synergy with EC flux measurements. The goal of ChinaSpec is to provide ground SIF measurements and promote the collaborations between optical remote sensing and EC flux communities in China. We present here the details of instrument specifications, data collection and processing procedures, data sharing and utilization protocols, and future plans. Furthermore, we show the examples how ground SIF observations can be used to track vegetation photosynthesis from diurnal to seasonal scales, to assist in the validation of fluorescence models and satellite SIF products (e.g., from OCO-2, TanSat and TROPOMI) with the measurements from these sites since 2016. This network of SIF observations could improve our understanding of the controls on the biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange and enable the improvement of carbon flux predictions. This SIF network will also help integrate ground SIF measurements with EC flux networks which will advance ecosystem and carbon cycle researches globally.

Remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) has emerged as a novel and powerful approach for terrestrial vegetation monitoring. Continuous measurements of SIF in synergy with concurrent eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements can provide a new opportunity to advance terrestrial ecosystem science. Here we introduce a network of ground-based continuous SIF observations at flux tower sites across the mainland China referred to as ChinaSpec. The network consists of sixteen tower sites including 6 cropland sites, 4 grassland sites, 4 forest sites and 2 wetland sites. An automated SIF system was deployed at each of these sites to collect continuous high resolution spectra for high-frequency SIF retrievals in synergy with EC flux measurements. The goal of ChinaSpec is to provide long-term ground-based SIF measurements and promote the collaborations between optical remote sensing and EC flux observation communities in China. We present here the details of instrument specifications, data collection and processing procedures, data sharing and utilization protocols, and future plans. Furthermore, we show the examples how ground-based SIF observations can be used to track vegetation photosynthesis from diurnal to seasonal scales, and to assist in the validation of fluorescence models and satellite SIF products (e.g., from OCO-2 and TROPOMI) with the measurements from these sites since 2016. This network of SIF observations could improve our understanding of the controls on the biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange and enable the improvement of carbon flux predictions. It will also help integrate ground-based SIF measurements with EC flux networks which will advance ecosystem and carbon cycle researches globally.