Salt marsh vegetation as a carbonyl sulfide (COS) source to the atmosphere

Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is the most abundant and longest-lived reduced sulfur compound in the atmosphere; changes in its atmospheric concentration could significantly affect global climate and the biogeochemical sulfur cycle. The largest sink of COS in the troposphere is its destruction in plant leaves by the enzymes involved in photosynthesis. In this study, net fluxes of COS were measured from a coastal salt marsh on a subtropical barrier island on the Texas shore of the Gulf of Mexico. We find net emissions from sites with the common salt marsh plant Batis maritima compared to the net uptake from vegetated plots of most previously investigated biomes. The magnitude of the COS production from vegetated plots in this study was twice the emissions of soil-only salt marsh plots. This is the first time that emissions of COS have been found to be significantly enhanced by the presence of vegetation compared to soil alone. COS fluxes exceeded +110 pmol m−2 s−1 for non-inundated plots during daytime hours and were correlated with soil temperature at the depth of 5 cm. Tidal flooding inhibited soil COS exchange; however, we found continued net emissions from emergent B. maritima. This study suggests that emissions of COS resulted from interactions with the plants themselves, which would mean that B. maritima can mediate the production of atmospheric COS.

► We found a plant-mediated COS source from a coastal wetland halophyte Batis maritima.
► Plots containing B. maritima produced up to 4 times more COS than soil-only plots.
► Plant interactions may account for a missing source of atmospheric sulfur.