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Developing accurate landscape‐scale aboveground biomass (AGB) maps is critical to understanding coastal deltaic wetland resilience, as AGB influences stability and elevation dynamics in herbaceous wetlands. Here we used AVIRIS‐NG imaging spectrometer (or "hyperspectral") data from NASA's 2021 Delta‐X mission in coastal Louisiana to map seasonal changes in herbaceous AGB across two deltaic basins with contrasting sediment delivery and hydrologic regimes: the Atchafalaya (active) and Terrebonne (inactive). We assessed the impact of atmospheric effects on our retrievals, as high water vapor content in August 2021 caused significant noise in the 880–1,000 and 1,080–1,200 nm near‐infrared (NIR) wavelengths. We hypothesized that correcting these wavelengths with our conditional Gaussian interpolation algorithm would improve AGB estimates due to their association with plant canopy water content. We empirically assessed the performance of the corrected spectra on AGB estimates using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), finding that the corrected NIR bands attained high variable importance and reduced estimation errors. Our Random Forest regression approach based on the corrected spectra attained equivalent error metrics via leave‐one‐out‐cross‐validation as the PLSR models (R2 = 0.43, mean absolute error = 257.3 g/m2) while greatly improving the AGB maps' visual quality, having better captured variability while reducing noise and discontinuities in AGB estimates across flightlines. The maps show differing seasonal growth, with the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins' AGB increasing from means of 4.3–9.4 and 4.6–8.9 Mg/ha, respectively. We demonstrated that imaging spectroscopy can be applied to assess herbaceous biomass stocks, growth patterns, and resilience in coastal ecosystems. Plain Language Summary: Developing accurate landscape‐scale aboveground biomass (AGB) maps is critical to understanding the sustainability of coastal deltaic systems, as plant biomass aids in a wetland maintaining its elevation in the face of relative sea level rise. Here we use imaging spectroscopy, or "hyperspectral" remote sensing, to map wetland biomass across seasons in coastal Louisiana. In doing so, we correct for the noise caused by high atmospheric water vapor content in important infrared bands, thereby improving our biomass models. We test empirical and machine learning models for estimating wetland biomass, determining that a machine learning regression model using our corrected data delivers the best model metrics and map quality. We thus map AGB in April and August 2021, across the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins. Our maps show various seasonal growth patterns, with the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins' herbaceous AGB increasing from means of 4.3–9.4 and 4.6–8.9 Mg/ha, respectively. Key Points: We developed an interpolation algorithm to correct noise in near‐infrared bands that improved wetland aboveground biomass (AGB) estimatesWe assessed model approaches and mapped wetland AGB in coastal Louisiana with a machine learning algorithm for March and August 2021The active Atchafalaya and inactive Terrebonne Basins' AGB increased from means of 4.3–9.4 and 4.6–8.9 Mg/ha, respectively [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangroves are the most blue-carbon rich coastal wetlands contributing to the reduction of atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis (sequestration) and high soil organic carbon (C) storage. Globally, mangroves are increasingly impacted by human and natural disturbances under climate warming, including pervasive pulsing tropical cyclones. However, there is limited information assessing cyclone's functional role in regulating wetlands carbon cycling from annual to decadal scales. Here we show how cyclones with a wide range of integrated kinetic energy (IKE) impact C fluxes in the Everglades, a neotropical region with high cyclone landing frequency. Using long-term mangrove Net Primary Productivity (Litterfall, NPPL) data (2001–2018), we estimated cyclone-induced litterfall particulate organic C (litter-POC) export from mangroves to estuarine waters. Our analysis revealed that this lateral litter-POC flux (71–205 g C m−2 year−1)—currently unaccounted in global C budgets—is similar to C burial rates (69–157 g C m−2 year−1) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC, 61–229 g C m−2 year−1) export. We proposed a statistical model (PULITER) between IKE-based pulse index and NPPL to determine cyclone's impact on mangrove role as C sink or source. Including the cyclone's functional role in regulating mangrove C fluxes is critical to developing local and regional climate change mitigation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex ways that are difficult to predict. Coordinated long‐term research and analysis are required to assess how these changes will affect a diverse array of ecosystem services. This paper is part of a series that is a product of a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. This effort revealed that each LTER site had at least one compelling scientific case study about "what their site would look like" in 50 or 100 yr. As the site results were prepared, themes emerged, and the case studies were grouped into separate papers along five themes: state change, connectivity, resilience, time lags, and cascading effects and compiled into this special issue. This paper addresses the time lags theme with five examples from diverse biomes including tundra (Arctic), coastal upwelling (California Current Ecosystem), montane forests (Coweeta), and Everglades freshwater and coastal wetlands (Florida Coastal Everglades) LTER sites. Its objective is to demonstrate the importance of different types of time lags, in different kinds of ecosystems, as drivers of ecosystem structure and function and how these can effectively be addressed with long‐term studies. The concept that slow, interactive, compounded changes can have dramatic effects on ecosystem structure, function, services, and future scenarios is apparent in many systems, but they are difficult to quantify and predict. The case studies presented here illustrate the expanding scope of thinking about time lags within the LTER network and beyond. Specifically, they examine what variables are best indicators of lagged changes in arctic tundra, how progressive ocean warming can have profound effects on zooplankton and phytoplankton in waters off the California coast, how a series of species changes over many decades can affect Eastern deciduous forests, and how infrequent, extreme cold spells and storms can have enduring effects on fish populations and wetland vegetation along the Southeast coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The case studies highlight the need for a diverse set of LTER (and other research networks) sites to sort out the multiple components of time lag effects in ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A total wetland extent of 2950 km2 was mapped during a period of peak biomass in September 2017 for the coastal wetlands of southern Louisiana • The mapped extent demonstrated considerable differences (793.7 km2) from currently available estimates of wetland area. • Total herbaceous biomass at the study site was estimated at 1,396,969.2 Mg during a period of peak biomass and total woody vegetation biomass was estimated at 27,667,232.1 Mg. • Herbaceous biomass increased by 108.9% between a period of low to high biomass, underlining the dynamic nature of the wetlands and the influence of seasonality on wetland function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangroves are considered one of the most productive ecosystems in the world with significant contributions as carbon sinks in the biosphere. Yet few attempts have been made to assess global patterns in mangrove net primary productivity, except for a few assumptions relating litterfall rates to variation in latitude. We combined geophysical and climatic variables to predict mangrove litterfall rates at continental scale. On a per-area basis, carbon flux in litterfall in the neotropics is estimated at 5 MgC.ha-1.yr-1, between 20% and 50% higher than previous estimates. Annual carbon fixed in mangrove litterfall in the neotropics is estimated at 11.5 TgC, which suggests that current global litterfall estimates extrapolated from mean reference values may have been underestimated by at least 5%. About 5.8 TgC of this total carbon fixed in the neotropics is exported to estuaries and coastal oceans, which is nearly 30% of global carbon export by tides. We provide the first attempt to quantify and map the spatial variability of carbon fixed in litterfall in mangrove forests at continental scale in response to geophysical and climatic environmental drivers. Our results strengthen the global carbon budget for coastal wetlands, providing blue carbon scientists and coastal policy makers with a more accurate representation of the potential of mangroves to offset carbon dioxide emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboveground biomass (AGB) plays a critical functional role in coastal wetland ecosystem stability, with high biomass vegetation contributing to organic matter production, sediment accretion potential, and the surface elevation's ability to keep pace with relative sea level rise. Many remote sensing studies have employed either imaging spectrometer or synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for AGB estimation in various environments for assessing ecosystem health and carbon storage. This study leverages airborne data from NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) and Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to assess their unique capabilities in combination to estimate AGB in coastal deltaic wetlands. Here we develop AGB models for emergent herbaceous and forested wetland vegetation in coastal Louisiana. In addition to horizontally emitted, vertically received (HV) backscatter, SAR parameters are expressed by the Freeman–Durden polarimetric decomposition components representing volume and double-bounce scattering. The imaging spectrometer parameters include normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), reflectance from 290 visible-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) bands, the first derivatives from those bands, or partial least squares (PLS) x-scores derived from those data. Model metrics and cross-validation indicate that the integrated models using the Freeman-Durden components and PLS x-scores improve AGB estimates for both wetland vegetation types. In our study domain over Louisiana's Wax Lake Delta (WLD), we estimated a mean herbaceous wetland AGB of 3.58 Megagrams/hectare (Mg/ha) and a total of 3551.31 Mg over 9.92 km2, and a mean forested wetland AGB of 294.78 Mg/ha and a total of 27,499.14 Mg over 0.93 km2. While the addition of SAR-derived values to imaging spectrometer data provides a nominal error decrease for herbaceous wetland AGB, this combination significantly improves forested wetland AGB prediction. This integrative approach is particularly effective in forested wetlands as canopy-level biochemical characteristics are captured by the imaging spectrometer in addition to the variable structural information measured by the SAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coming decades, the global rate of sea-level rise (SLR) is projected to accelerate beyond rates observed over the past several millennia when mangrove wetlands have expanded in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions. There is substantial uncertainty about how distinct mangrove ecotypes inhabiting a wide range of geomorphic settings will respond to SLR acceleration, including the thresholds at which they will submerge permanently. In this study, the relative contributions of soil organic and inorganic matter (SOM and SIM) to 210 Pb-derived accretion rates were examined at 23 mangrove sites in southwest Florida, USA and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. These sites are situated atop carbonate platforms where there is wide variation in the availability of SIM (generally marine marl). To account for this variability, research sites were classified by SIM presence based on the SOM content (%) estimated using loss-on-ignition: organic sites (SOM > 70%), intermediate sites (SOM = 40–70%) and mineral sites (SOM < 40%). SOM accumulation rates were largely the same in the three soil classes during the past century ( p < 0.05); however, SIM accumulation rates in the intermediate and mineral sites were approximately 5 and 20 times greater, respectively, than rates in the organic sites. Despite this substantial difference in total mass accumulation rates, accretion rates were not statistically different between soil classes ( p < 0.05). Our analysis revealed that the rate of SOM accumulation is the best predictor of accretion rates, while the rate of SIM accumulation primarily predicts soil dry bulk density. These findings indicate that SOM and SIM do not contribute additively to soil volume. This is contrary to findings from North American coastal wetlands broadly, suggesting a unique characteristic of carbonate platform mangrove soils that lack a regular, substantive supply of terrigenous SIM. Overall, accretion rates in the FL sites and a Yucatan site on the Caribbean Sea are maintaining pace with regional rates of SLR over the past 100-year and 50-year timespans, whereas the sites in Celestun Lagoon, MX (located on the Gulf of Mexico) exhibit an accretion deficit. Estimates of regional SLR rates range from 4.6 to 12.2 mm yr − 1 by the year 2060. Based on accretion rates observed in the past century, some of these sites may be able to keep pace with the lower SLR estimate, but there is no evidence that any of these sites can match the higher rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]