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1. In their natural state, river floodplains are composed of a complex mosaic of contrasting aquatic and terrestrial habitats. These habitats are expected to differ widely in their properties and corresponding ecological processes, although empirical data on their capacity to produce, store and transform organic matter and nutrients are limited.

2. The objectives of this study were (i) to quantify the spatiotemporal variation of respiration, a dominant carbon flux in ecosystems, in a complex river floodplain, (ii) to identify the environmental drivers of respiration within and among floodplain habitat types and (iii) to calculate whole-floodplain respiration and to put these values into a global ecosystem context.

3. We measured soil and sediment respiration (sum of root and heterotrophic respiration; SR) throughout an annual cycle in two aquatic (pond and channel) and four terrestrial (gravel, large wood, vegetated island and riparian forest) floodplain habitat types in the island-braided section of the near-natural Tagliamento River (NE Italy).

4. Floodplain habitat types differed greatly in substratum composition (soil to coarse gravel), organic matter content (0.63 to 4.1% ash-free dry mass) and temperature (seasonal range per habitat type: 8.6 to 33.1 degrees C). Average annual SR ranged from 0.54 +/- 1.56 (exposed gravel) to 3.94 +/- 3.72 mu mol CO2 m(-2) s(-1) (vegetated islands) indicating distinct variation in respiration within and among habitat types. Temperature was the most important predictor of SR. However, the Q(10) value ranged from 1.62 (channel habitat) to 4.57 (riparian forest), demonstrating major differences in habitat-specific temperature sensitivity in SR.

5. Total annual SR in individual floodplain habitats ranged from 160 (ponds) to 1205 g C m(-2) (vegetated islands) and spanned almost the entire range of global ecosystem respiration, from deserts to tropical forests.