Seasonal Export of Dissolved Organic Matter from a New England Salt Marsh

ABSTRACT Schiebel, H.N.; Gardner, G.B.; Wang, X.; Peri, F., and Chen, R.F., 2018. Seasonal export of dissolved organic matter from a New England salt marsh. The seasonality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) export from a New England salt marsh was investigated using multiple estuary transects along with laboratory plant leaching experiments. From 2001 through 2013, 35 transects of the Neponset Estuary in Boston, Massachusetts, were conducted to measure high-resolution in situ chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) fluorescence, along with other standard oceanographic parameters, via sensors incorporated into an undulating depressor wing known as the mini-shuttle. Water samples were collected during each cruise for discrete dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and CDOM fluorescence analyses. Seasonal salt marsh DOC export rates ranged from 1.1 × 107 to 15 × 107 mol C season−1 (10–140 mol C m−2 season−1). The total export was found to be 23 ± 17 × 107 mol C y−1 (210 mol C m−2 y−1) with river discharge, temp...