Response of Terrebonne Bay and western Barataria Bay marsh soil greenhouse gas production to salinity manipulations

We quantified the effects of altering salinity (5, 15, 25, 35 ppt) and the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on greenhouse gas (GHG) (CH4, CO2, N2O) production on laboratory incubated soils from oiled and unoiled Terrebonne and Barataria Bay salt marsh sites. These sites include 2 sets of paired oiled and unoiled marshes in both the Terrebonne Bay (Bay LaFleur and northern Lake Barre regions) and western Barataria Bay (north of Grand Isle, LA) regions of coastal LA. Soils were collected at 5, 10, 15, and 20 m from the marsh edge at each site and pooled for salinity manipulations. Additionally, we measured a series of soil properties (water content, organic matter, organic C, total N and CN ratios) on these pooled soils.