Quantifying aggregation bias in marsh carbon flux estimates caused by rhizosphere oxygen heterogeneity

Saadaoui, Youssef; Beer, Christian; Mueller, Peter; Neiske, Friederike; Becker, Joscha N.; Eschenbach, Annette; Porada, Philipp

doi:10.5194/bg-23-6803-2026

Articles | Volume 23, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-6803-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-6803-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 19

Research article

|

02 Oct 2026

Research article |

| 02 Oct 2026

Quantifying aggregation bias in marsh carbon flux estimates caused by rhizosphere oxygen heterogeneity

Youssef Saadaoui, Christian Beer, Peter Mueller, Friederike Neiske, Joscha N. Becker, Annette Eschenbach, and Philipp Porada

Data sets

Simulation of heterotrophic respiration of incubated soil samples based on the Introductory Carbon Balance Model (ICBM). Christian Beer http://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.14367

Model code and software

Scripts for modeling and simulating soil heterotrophic respiration Saadaoui Youssef et al. http://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.14377

Short summary

In marsh soils, oxygen concentrations are high close to plant roots and decline to near zero within millimetres. Microorganisms do not decompose organic matter in proportion to oxygen. Many models nevertheless use a single average oxygen concentration. Using Elbe River soils, we compared this approach with a calculation over the full range. The single average overestimated carbon dioxide release by about 12 %. Marsh soils may therefore store more carbon than models predict.