Wetlands are crucial ecosystems modulating climate change due to their great potential
to capture carbon dioxide (CO2), emit methane (CH4) and regulate local climate through
evapotranspiration (ET). Common reed wetlands are particularly interesting given their
high productivity, abundance and highly efficient internal gas-transport mechanism.
However, little is known about the interannual behavior and dominant controlling
factors of Mediterranean reed wetlands, characterized by seasonal flooding and
remarkable weather variability. After 6 years of ecosystem carbon and ET flux
measurements by eddy covariance (3 years for CH4 fluxes), this study shows the
functional vulnerability of such wetlands to climate variability, switching between
carbon (CO2+CH4) sink (660 g CO2-eeq m-2
y
-1
, in 2014) and source (360 g CO2-eq m-2
y
-1
, in 2016) in short periods of time. According to our analyses, the great interannual
variability appeared to mainly depend on the behavior of reed growth dynamics during
the transition to senescence period, what is confirmed through the Enhanced Vegetation
Index as a proxy of photosynthetic activity. Additionally, a similar behavior of seasonal
and daily patterns of carbon fluxes and ET was found compared with other wetlands
under different climates
