Evapotranspiration in Tidal Marshes

Field experiments were completed to determine patterns of evapotranspirative water loss from salt and tidal freshwater marshes in Virginia. Water losses from "Mariotte systems" attached to open-water lysimeters and lysimeters vegetated by dominant marsh macrophytes were used to calculate hourly rates of open-water evaporation (Eo) and evapotranspiration (ET), respectively, during low tide. In the tidal freshwater marsh, ET was significantly greater than Eo (p = 0.002, n = 6); in the salt marsh, there were no differences between mean rates of ET and Eo (p = 0.200, n = 3). The ratio ET:Eo was highly correlated with leaf area index (LAI) ( r2=0.82). In the tidal freshwater marsh, the amount of water loss due to plant transpiration was partitioned from total evapotranspiration by covering the water surface of the lysimeters with styrofoam beads. Measured transpiration rates in the tidal freshwater marsh were strongly correlated with leaf area index according to the following linear regression equation: T=0.355( LAI)-0.084( r2=0.797, n=10). Because LAI was shown to be a good predictor of the relative increase in ET over Eo, it is likely that in vegetated tidal freshwater marshes with high leaf densities most atmospheric water loss comes from plants, not from the surface of the marsh. In salt marshes, low plant densities do not contribute substantially to atmospheric water loss, suggesting that paths of water transport and patterns of solute concentration in the subsurface environment are different compared to the tidal freshwater marsh.