Wetland Soils

Wetland soils are hydric soils, which are divers as "soils that formed under atmospheric condition of saturation, flooding or ponding long plenty during the growing season to develop anaerobic weather in the upper part" (Us Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2018, pp.

From: Reference Module in Earth Systems and Ecology Sciences , 2021

Wetland Soils: Concrete and Chemic Properties and Biogeochemical Processes

Courtney Mobilian , Christopher B. Craft , in Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, 2021

Decision

Wetland soils are unique, with patterns and processes characteristic of both upland (oxidized) soils and aquatic (reduced) sediments that vary spatially and temporally. Periodic to continuous overflowing and saturation drives a number of aerobic and anaerobic microbial processes that provide disquisitional ecosystem functions and services, including water quality improvement through denitrification and cycling of carbon and greenhouse gases, CO 2 and CH4. Because of their often high found productivity and wearisome rate of decomposition, wetland soils are an of import global sink for carbon. The variable concrete (texture, bulk density) and chemic (pH, redox potential) properties of wetland soils touch on the power of wetlands to perform these ecosystem services and deed every bit carbon and nutrient sinks.

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Mitigating Nonpoint Source Pollution in Agronomics with Constructed and Restored Wetlands

A.T. O'Geen , ... R.A. Dahlgren , in Advances in Agronomy, 2010

ane.iii.1 Redox processes

Redox status of wetland soils dictates many important constituent transformations affecting the chemical phase (aqueous, solid, or gas), mobility of some contaminants, and the reactivity of sorption sites. Reducing conditions ascend equally soils go saturated. Oxygen rapidly becomes express in submerged soils because the oxygen diffusion rate is orders of magnitude slower in saturated soil compared with well-drained soils. Anaerobic conditions develop in the absence of O 2, and as a consequence, other electron acceptors are utilized for microbial respiration. In the presence of oxygen, redox potentials are generally in the range of 400–600   mV. Following oxygen depletion, nitrate is reduced to N2O and N2 gas at a threshold redox potential around 250   mV (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2000). Once nitrate (NO3) is consumed, constituents that affect P cycling are reduced, such as manganese and fe (hydr)oxides, at redox thresholds around 225 and 100   mV, respectively. At low redox potentials, sulfate is reduced to sulfide (−   100   mV) and CO2 is reduced to methyl hydride (−   200   mV).

Wetland soils are not completely reduced. A thin oxidative layer exists at the soil surface, which ranges in thickness from a few millimeters to several centimeters. This layer forms as a consequence of mixing between the temper, water cavalcade, and soil. Its thickness is mediated by temperature, rate of diffusion, institute and microorganism respiration rates, oxygen production via photosynthesis by aquatic vegetation, and mixing in the water column (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2000). Since some water-quality constituents become less mobile under oxidizing atmospheric condition (Mn and Fe), this thin oxidized layer tin human activity as a barrier for translocations from sediment pore water to the water column. Moreover, it besides serves as an of import area where aerobic biochemical reactions occur, such equally mineralization and marsh gas oxidation.

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Biogeochemistry

J.P. Megonigal , ... P.T. Visscher , in Treatise on Geochemistry, 2003

viii.08.4.three.2 Nutrients and pH

Laboratory incubations of wetland soils with nitrogen and phosphorus amendments have shown either no event or an inhibitory effect on methanogenesis ( Bodelier et al., 2000a,b; Bridgham and Richardson, 1992; Wang and Lewis, 1992). A low rate of phosphate supply to rice roots stimulated CHfour emission (Lu et al., 1999), while phosphate concentrations ≥twenty mM specifically inhibited acetotrophic methanogenesis (Conrad et al., 2000).

Methanogens crave a somewhat unique suite of micronutrients that include nickel, cobalt, fe, and sodium (Jarrell and Kalmokoff, 1988). Methanogenesis was stimulated by molybdenum, nickel, boron, iron, zinc, vanadium, and cobalt in a rice paddy soil (Banik et al., 1996), and past a cocktail of nickel, cobalt, and iron in Sphagnum-derived peat (Basiliko and Yavitt, 2001). The micronutrient cocktail did not stimulate CO2 production in the aforementioned soils, suggesting that methanogens, rather than fermenters, were straight limited by trace elements. Freshwater methanogens required at to the lowest degree 1 mM Na+ to drive ATP formation by an Na+/K+ pump (Kaesler and Scho¨nheit, 1989). Trace chemical element availability could limit methanogenesis in peatlands that are isolated from groundwater inputs and sea table salt deposition. The latter upshot could be important in bogs in the interior of continents.

Nearly methanogenic communities seem to exist dominated past neutrophilic species. Some acidic peats take responded to an increase in pH with college CHiv production (Dunfield et al., 1993; Valentine et al., 1994), while other peats have non (Bridgham and Richardson, 1992). A substantial portion of the acetate pool may not be available to methanogens at low pH because it is prevented from dissociating (Fukuzaki et al., 1990).

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Hydropedology

Henry Lin , in Hydropedology, 2012

2.3 Moisture Soils and Carbon Sequestration

With growing interests in wetlands and hydric soils, many studies have underlined the importance of soil morphology in interpreting soil hydrology (e.grand. Vepraskas and Sprecher, 1997; Injure et al., 1998; Rabenhorst et al., 1998; Richardson and Vepraskas, 2001). Soil hydromorphology deals with soil morphological features (especially redoximorphic features) caused past h2o saturation and their relation to hydrologic conditions. Redox features (formerly called mottles and low chroma colors) are formed by the processes of alternating reduction–oxidation due to saturation–desaturation and the subsequent translocation or precipitation of Fe and Mn compounds in soils (Hurt et al., 1998). Because soil morphology is sensitive to water regime in soils, and water table in hydric soils in detail, information technology could be used to estimate soil moisture regime and water table status, equally demonstrated in many studies (e.g. Coventry and Williams, 1984; Evans and Franzmeier, 1986; Galusky et al., 1998; Severson et al., 2008). The depth to gleying, for instance, has long been used as an indicator of the mean position of wet-flavour water tabular array (Franzmeier et al., 1983), while the depths to redox concretions and depletions accept been linked to water-table fluctuations (Vepraskas, 1992). In the U.k., in the absenteeism of directly measurement, soils can be assigned to one of half dozen soil wetness classes that describe the height and duration of water logging based on soil profile features including the depth to a slowly permeable layer and depth to gleying (Lilly and Matthews, 1994; Lilly et al., 2003). It should exist noted, though, that relict redox features formed under past hydrologic condition or paleo-climate could be difficult to interpret and thus cautions should be exercised (Hurt et al., 1998; Rabenhorst et al., 1998). The rules and cautions in using soil morphology to infer soil hydrology are discussed in Chapter 5 of this book by Vepraskas and Lindbo.

The interconnectedness between soils and water quality in subaqueous environments, and the growing pressures on estuarine and freshwater bodies, has given rise to increased attention to soils under permanently inundated water called subaqueous soils (which accept been traditionally treated as sediments). The observation and realization that subaqueous soil horizons are the effect of pedogenic processes have led to a new definition of soils past the U.S. Department of Agriculture that accommodates subaqueous soils (run into Affiliate 6 of this book by Rabenhorst and Stolt). Estuaries are believed to take the highest principal productivity of all ecosystems, yet soils in estuarine environments have been largely disregarded in carbon (C) sequestration studies (Jespersen and Osher, 2007; Erich et al., 2010). Jespersen and Osher (2007) have suggested that systematically quantifying and dating C in estuarine soils can provide valuable data for utilise in regional and global C budgets and climate models, because missing C sinks in the global C upkeep may likely include those C sequestrated in subaqueous soils. Equally an illustration, Jespersen and Osher (2007) quantified organic C stored in the top i   m of soils from the Taunton Bay estuary in Hancock County, Maine, and constitute that the organics were protected from decomposition by anaerobic conditions, leading to 136   Mg   C   ha−1 that is much greater than the C content in the top ane m of Maine'south upland soils. Over the geological fourth dimension, clays formed in soils in the past that were washed from country into offshore waters are now believed to take altered the global C cycle, with huge impacts on climate during the Neoproterozoic (Kennedy et al., 2006). The importance of C in arctic soils is another globally significant C reservoir that may be threatened by global warming – if permafrost thaws then it will release trapped C and can farther exacerbate global warming (Zimov et al., 2006). A comprehensive discussion on the pedogenesis, mapping, and applications of subaqueous soils is presented in Chapter 6 of this book, and Chapter xi further discusses regional C biogeochemistry in relation to hydropedology in North American perhumid coastal temperate rainforest.

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REDOX POTENTIAL

R.D. DeLaune , K.R. Reddy , in Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, 2005

Redox Couples in Wetlands

Although several redox couples office in wetlands soils, the following are the nigh mutual reduction reactions involving a specific redox couple:

O two + 4 due east + 4 H + 2 H ii O 2 NO 3 + x e + 12 H + Due north 2 + 6 H 2 O MnO 2 + 2 e + 4 H + Mn 2 + + 2 H 2 O Fe ( OH ) three + e + 3 H + Atomic number 26 + ii + iii H 2 O And then 4 ii + viii e + viii H + S 2 + 4 H 2 O CO 2 + 8 e + 8 H + CH 4 + ii H 2 O

The various inorganic redox systems found in soil and sediment become unstable at critical redox potentials (Figure 3). Sequentially post-obit flooding, oxygen is reduced start, followed by nitrate and oxidized manganese compounds, and and so ferric iron compounds. Afterward the reduction of ferric fe, the next redox compound to become unstable is sulfate, followed by the reduction of carbon dioxide to methane.

Figure 3. Critical redox potential for the transformation of redox couples.

Soil redox potential represents an indication of the oxidation–reduction status of the various redox couples. For instance, a redox potential of 0 mV indicates that oxygen and nitrate are non probable to be present and that the bioreducible iron and manganese compounds are in a reduced land. At this same potential, however, sulfate is stable in the soil with no production of sulfide, which is toxic to plants. A redox potential of +400 mV indicates that oxygen may be present even though there may be excess water.

Redox potential measurements in pure systems tin be used to predict the ionic distribution betwixt chemical species which may interact with the transfer of electrons, such as ferrous and ferric iron or nitrite and nitrate nitrogen. Still, in natural systems, at that place are many redox couples present, and non all redox couples are chemically interactive with others. Unless the concentration of a given redox couple is relatively high, inert electrodes (more often than not platinum) used for redox measurements are non specific for a specific redox couple. The redox electrode responds to the collective electrochemical potentials of all redox couples present.

The measured redox potential in soil is generally a mixed potential which reflects a weighted average of the potentials contributed past each of the redox couples present. As a result of the continuous addition of organic matter, which oxidizes and serves as an electron donor, a redox equilibrium is almost never attained in a natural system.

With the theoretical limitations involved in the use of redox potentials to quantitatively describe a specific ionic distribution in a mixed arrangement, redox measurements tin can be successfully applied to characterize the oxidation–reduction transformations of many elements, including heavy metals and establish nutrients in soil.

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Global Change and Forest Soils

Carl C. Trettin , ... Zhaohua Dai , in Developments in Soil Science, 2019

Precipitation

The furnishings of climate change on forested wetland soils will exist mediated primarily through changes in precipitation because water regulates hydrologic processes in terrestrial wetlands, and these processes direct affect many biogeochemical processes. While there are considerable uncertainties in the projected changes in atmospheric precipitation, there is consensus among projections that some areas will get drier and others will become wetter. Accordingly, consideration of the precipitation furnishings should address scenarios where wetlands may become either wetter or drier, depending on the precipitation response. Specific responses will besides be dependent on the wetland type and geomorphic position.

Wetlands that are dependent on atmospheric precipitation to sustain their water balance are particularly vulnerable to changes in precipitation patterns in contrast to those that are sustained primarily past footing water discharge (Winter, 2000). Assessing the sensitivity of atmospheric precipitation-dependent wetlands to contradistinct precipitation regimes, Fay et al., (2016) showed that the ratio of hateful annual atmospheric precipitation to potential evapotranspiration was an constructive metric to predict wetland response to irresolute precipitation. Accordingly, forested bogs and ephemeral ponds will exist particularly susceptible. A reduction in the water table inside the wetland volition increment the drained soil book, thereby facilitating aerobic metabolism. These aerobic conditions, in plow, will increment organic matter decomposition (Griffis et al., 2000; Laiho 2006; Clair et al., 1995; Morrissey et al., 2014) and then alter greenhouse gas emissions from soil. The increased decomposition volition cause a corresponding increase in soil CO2 flux to the atmosphere (Field 1995; Moor et al., 2015). Notwithstanding, CH4 emissions may exist reduced significantly, particularly once the water table is 15   cm or more beneath the soil surface (Trettin et al., 2006). The decrease in water input may also result in a reduction in water output from the wetland, and any increase in h2o storage within the wetland may enhance flood mitigation. For forested peatlands the consequence of a reduction in water table during the growing season is an increased risk of wildfire and consumption of the peat soil (Flannigan et al., 2009).

Increases in precipitation amount may be expected to raise the water table level inside the wetland, effectively decreasing the aerated soil volume. The full general result on biogeochemical processes would be to reduce organic affair decomposition, and increase methanogenesis and denitrification. In temperate and tropical areas, the productivity response to climatic change will besides be affected past the changes in the precipitation regime. In areas that feel an increase in the frequency and duration of saturated soils, productivity may increase (Field 1995; Noe and Zedler, 2001) or decrease depending on the antecedent condition. For example, in tropical wetlands the productivity response coincides with change in precipitation (Barros and Albernaz 2015). In the case of subtropical coastal marshes, moderation of winter temperatures is facilitating the north expansion of mangroves, which are displacing marsh ecosystems (Saintilan et al., 2014; Armitage et al., 2015; Simpson et al., 2017), changing the course of organic matter input to the ecosystem, which in turn may alter the faunal communities (Smee et al., 2017).

As a event of decreased water storage within the wetland, increased precipitation may as well increase frequency and duration of flooding events. Similarly, extreme events may likewise increase flooding due to both the corporeality and intensity of the precipitation that impair the provision of ecosystem services (Talbot et al., 2018). Still, specific changes may also be strongly afflicted by land use (Martin et al., 2017).

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PADDY SOILS

C. Witt , S.Thou. Haefele , in Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environs, 2005

Distribution and Important Characteristics of Paddy Soils

Paddy soils constitute an important group within the wetland soils, where water saturation dominates soil development and the types of plant and animal communities. Thus, paddy soils are defined every bit wetland soils with continuing water in bunded and leveled fields used for cultivation of rice (bunds are small dikes around the field to keep the h2o from running off). Paddy soils may support an upland, nonrice crop in the dry out flavour when soils are aerated, simply insufficient drainage capacities frequently make rice the only possible crop choice in the lowlands of the humid tropics. Free surface water may occur naturally or rainfall, runoff, or irrigation water may be retained by field bunds and/or compacted subsoil layers.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) World Reference Base for Soil Resources, most paddy soils are designated as Anthrosols (having a puddled surface layer and a plough pan) or every bit Gleysols, Fluvisols, Planosols, Plinthosols, and Histosols. Smaller areas of paddy soils autumn within the gleyic soil units of Arenosols, Andosols, Cambisols, Solonetz, Solonchaks, Luvisols, Lixisols, Acrisols, and Alisols. Although Vertisols, Nitisols, and Ferralsols have no gleyic soil units, these soils may be artificially flooded and used for rice cultivation. The US Department of Agriculture Soil Taxonomy does non recognize wetland soils at the level of soil orders, but classifies soils with aquic weather condition at the suborder level and soils with hydromorphism at the subgroup level. Well-nigh paddy soils would be assigned to the aquic suborders of Andosols, Oxisols, Vertisols, Ultisols, Mollisols, Alfisols, Inceptisols, and Entisols.

Natural or artificial flooding of paddy soils has marked effects on electrochemical, chemical, and microbial processes, which in turn affect soil fertility and thereby crop growth in a dynamic manner. The principal electrochemical changes include a decrease in redox potential and changes in soil and solution pH, microbially mediated processes that are mainly controlled by organic thing and reducible Fe contents of the soil. With decreasing redox potential, oxidized forms of soil redox systems serve as electron acceptors in microbial respiration. The full general sequence of reduction is O 2 NO three Mn iii , iv Atomic number 26 3 SO 4 2 CO ii H + . Some of these redox systems are overlapping (due east.g., O2, NO 3 , and Mn(iii, iv)), whereas others are not (due east.g., O2 and Fe(3); Then iv two , and COii). Reduction of CO2 causes the emission of methane from flooded paddy soils in freshwater systems. The electrochemical changes induce a pH increase in near acid soils, whereas the pH decrease upon flooding of calcareous and sodic soils is due to the aggregating of carbon dioxide. Two distinctly unlike topsoil layers develop: a sparse aerobic surface layer of a few millimeters depth caused past O2 improvidence through the aerobic floodwater layer (and around the rice root surface due to Oii transport through the rice establish's aerenchyma), and the anaerobic soil layer below, with a variable depth. Virtually roots are concentrated in the first 20 or 30 cm below the soil surface. The presence of aerobic and anaerobic soil compartments causes considerable soil N losses through mineralization–nitrification–denitrification reactions (Figure ii). In nigh soils, flooding increases the plant availability of P, G, Ca, Mg, Na, Mn, Fe, and Si at least temporarily. Reduction of Fe and Mn oxides releases sorbed and occluded elements such as P, Zn, Cu, B, and Mo. Increasing pH reduces constitute availability of Zn and Cu, whilst the solubility of Mo increases. Reduction of SO four 2 reduces constitute-available S.

Figure 2. Aerobic and anaerobic soil compartments in a flooded paddy soil, and related sulfur and nitrogen dynamics. (Adapted from Greenland DJ (1997) The Sustainability of Rice Farming, pp. i–273. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing/Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Found, with permission.)

A widespread and traditional soil-grooming exercise in lowland production systems is puddling. Puddling refers to the do of mixing surface soil with water to make information technology soft for transplanting, the traditional ingather establishment method for rice. Other short-term puddling effects are the devastation of soil aggregates, irrigation-water savings due to reduced percolation, altered soil majority density, increased soil water-holding capacity, decreased hydraulic conductivity, an acceleration of the electrochemical processes described to a higher place, and adept weed control. A long-term effect of puddling is the development of a hardpan (plow pan, traffic pan) in the subsoil below the puddled layer, frequently associated with the aggregating of Fe, Mn, and Si. The puddled surface layer is often characterized by a coarser texture caused by clay mineral decomposition and/or transportation processes. Hardpan formation may take from 3 to 200 years, depending on soil type, climate, hydrology, and puddling frequency.

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Denitrification in Wetlands

Oswald Van Cleemput , ... Karin Tonderski , in Biology of the Nitrogen Bicycle, 2007

Publisher Summary

Definite prerequisites for denitrification are anoxic conditions and the presence of NOthree every bit electron acceptor. In wetland soils, anoxic atmospheric condition predominate because the chemical and microbial demands for O 2 greatly exceeds its supply, and the improvidence of Otwo in water is about 104 slower than in air. The chapter illustrates the importance of Nii fixation and denitrification in wetlands on a global scale. In natural wetlands besides equally in paddy soils, NOthree for denitrification can either exist supplied or formed. The chapter explores wetland every bit an environment for denitrification. Identification of the oxidized and reduced zone can exist done through the measurement of a redox potential profile. It as well explains the molecular diversity of denitrifiers based on the polymerase chain reaction amplification of key enzyme genes in the denitrification procedure. Together with N2Oreductase factor and nosZ, the NO2 reductase genes are the main targets for investigating the distribution and diversity of the denitrifying bacteria. A riparian zone is the interface between a terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem. This chapter describes denitrification in riparian as well as constructed wetlands. and explains factors that influence the emission of nitrogen gases from wetlands. Flux measurement techniques are likewise provided in this chapter. Flux gradient techniques using tunable diode lasers, equally belittling technique, are less suitable in wetlands because of their heterogenic nature.

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A review of copper speciation and transformation in constitute and soil/wetland systems

Peiman Zandi , ... Beata Barabasz-Krasny , in Advances in Agronomy, 2020

Abstract

Copper (Cu), as a micronutrient and heavy metal contaminant, plays a vital part in the plant and soil/wetland systems. The bioavailability and toxicity of Cu in plant and soil/wetland systems depends critically on its chemical speciation. Several cardinal plant physiological processes are accomplished on the participation and transformation of Cu which is recognized every bit a cofactor for many constitute metalloproteins. Plants tolerate Cu toxicity past immobilizing excess amounts in harvestable parts including leaves, cell walls and vacuolar membrane of root cortex. Concerning environmental Cu bioavailability, plants have evolved unlike strategies to attune Cu homeostasis. The immobilized Cu in plants can be remobilized in times of Cu deprivation. Institute Cu acquisition, transportation, and remobilization for growth are managed by several Cu-uptake proteins via Cu transporter COPT/Ctr-similar protein family, specific Cu chaperones and metal chelators. The transfer of Cu from soil/wetland systems to plants is determined by the chemical speciation and bioavailability of Cu, which is critically affected by various factors involving institute species, soil microbial community, and dissolved organic carbon, redox potential likewise as other soil/sediment physicochemical factors, particular for Due south cycling and transformation under flooding conditions. Given the increased consumption of Cu products and enhanced concentration of Cu in surround in the past several decades, this review recommends continuous and uninterrupted exploring of the biogeochemical behavior and transformation mechanisms of Cu in plants and soil/wetland systems, particular at the molecular levels.

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Surface Water

S.J. Marshall , in Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, 2013

Abstruse

Water at Earth's surface is stored or circulating within the global network of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, wetlands, soils, and snowfields. Glaciers and ice sheets found additional reservoirs of water at Earth's surface. These hydrological systems are often interconnected, and surface water is also actively exchanged between the atmosphere and subsurface (i.east. groundwater). Although surface water makes up less than 0.02% of the world's water, much of the world's drinking h2o is drawn from surface water bodies. Lakes, rivers, and wetlands likewise host a rich assortment of aquatic ecosystems, are an integral feature of the landscape, and provide society with exceptional recreational opportunities and transportation routes.

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