Abstract:Elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and sea level can influence the stability of the wetland by affecting the distribution and growth of plants. Underground biomass is a critical factor regulating ecosystem functions of coastal marshes, including the accumulation of soil organic matter and the maintenance of wetland elevation. In this paper, OTC (open top chamber) experiments were set up to explore the varied responses of three communities with different plant compositions (SC community: C3-dominated community; MX community: mixed C3-C4 community; SP community: C4-dominated community) to elevated CO2 and sea level. The results show that the increase of CO2 significantly promotes the rhizome, root and total underground biomass of SC, MX and SP communities, and the biomass varies greatly between years. The rise of sea level significantly reduces root biomass of plants in three communities and total underground biomass under elevated CO2 treatment in SC community and ambient CO2 treatment in SP community, but has no significant effect on rhizome biomass. Under the condition of high salinity, elevated CO2 alleviates the stress of high salinity on plants to some extent, but the fertilization effect of elevated CO2 decreased. The total underground biomass of SC and MX communities under ambient CO2 treatment is decreased over time, which is mainly due to the rise of sea level. Increased total biomass under elevated CO2 partially slows down the decrease and offsets the stress to some extent. Therefore, the rise of sea level may affect the stability of wetlands in the future, and elevated CO2 could alleviate the impact of some sea level rise on wetlands.