Primary Producers and Anthropic Signs Related to the Flood Plain Soils of the Tablas de Daimiel Wetland

Air quality assessment in biosphere reserves close to emission sources. The case of the Spanish "Tablas de Daimiel" national park

This work shows that biosphere reserves, national parks and other protected natural areas require in situ tools to monitor and detect local and remote air pollution sources which are a threat to flora, fauna water and soil. Industries in surrounding areas, traffic and long-range transport of air pollution, can change with time and meteorology and so each national park should also have a historical database of the air quality in the site. This study reports surface measurements of ozone, NO, NO₂, CO, SO₂ and PM_2.5 acquired from March 2020 to July 2021 in "Las Tablas de Daimiel", a wetland Mediterranean National Park bordered by different cities and new industries in the field of the revalorization of agricultural wastes. Simultaneous data from a background station in a rural area isolated from air pollution are considered as reference. Twelve campaigns of one week duration were also performed to sample air in sorbent tubes to analyse volatile organic compounds from anthropogenic sources. Data are discussed considering meteorology, especially wind speed and direction together with the assessment of back-trajectories of air masses from distant sources. The results show that the effects of pollution from local and faraway sources on air quality in the park were weak. Thus, except for the high levels of ozone, with a mean value of 71 μg.m^-3, measured mass loadings for pollutants were low and not in exceedance of the air quality standards. Saharan dust events were frequent and contributed to PM_2.5 levels in the site. NO_x and SO₂ average concentrations (3.2 and 0.4 μg.m^-3, respectively) were below the recommended critical levels for vegetation and all the quantified VOCs were found in average concentration levels below 0.5 μg.m^-3.

Effects of flooding frequencies on soil carbon and nitrogen stocks in river marginal wetlands in a ten-year period

Wetland hydrology can greatly influence the variations in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks. Soil cores were sampled to a depth of 100 cm at 10 cm intervals above 20 cm soils and 20 cm intervals below 20 cm soils in river marginal wetlands with different flooding frequencies (i.e., permanently flooded, one-year, five-year, ten-year, and one-hundred-year floodplains) in 1999 and 2009, respectively. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen were measured to investigate spatial and temporal variations in soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in five floodplains with different flooding frequencies on a small scale. The results showed that SOCS ranged from 4.62 kg C/m² to 13.21 kg C/m² and TNS from 0.41 kg N/m² to 2.01 kg N/m² in the top 1m depth in five zones in both sampling years. Higher soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks were observed in these floodplain wetlands with higher flooding frequencies (i.e. permanently flooded, one-year, and five-year floodplains) than those in lower-flooding-frequency floodplains (i.e., ten-year and one-hundred floodplains), and the highest soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in top 10 cm appeared in one-year floodplain rather than permanently flooded floodplain in both years. This indicated that higher flooding frequencies could contribute to soil carbon and nitrogen accumulation due to better hydrological conditions compared with lower flooding frequencies. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in top 1m depth decreased by approximately 8-53% and by 22-55% from 1999 to 2009, respectively, of which the highest change rate occurred in one-hundred fooldplain and the lowest in permanently flooded floodplain. The decline in soil carbon and nitrogen stocks of deeper soils mainly caused by heavy alkalinity, reduced water table, and elevated temperature in a ten-year period possibly contribute to explaining the total carbon and nitrogen losses in soil profiles. Correlation analysis showed that soil organic carbon and total nitrogen levels in this region were significantly correlated with flooding frequencies, soil depth, soil pH value, bulk density, soil texture, and microbial biomass. It is necessary to pay much more attention to carbon and nitrogen stocks in deeper soils and find out the key factors that cause carbon and nitrogen loss in these floodplain wetlands to improve carbon sink function of wetland soils. The findings of this work provide a potential explanation for the "missing" carbon sinks at a larger scale.