“…A similar seasonal change in sediment respiration has been reported previously for other estuarine intertidal flats (van Es 1982;Middelburg et al 1995Middelburg et al , 1996. At our study site, the Therkildsen and Lomstein (1993) Tidally dominated bay Northern Waddesn Sea, Germany 2.7-4.3 b Kristensen et al (1997) Intertidal estuary Westerschelde Estuary, The Netherlands 2.2-6.3 b Middelburg et al (1996) Intertidal flat Hiroshima Bay, Japan 2.4-2.8 a Seiki et al (1998) Sublittoral area Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA 1.26-2.16 a Smith (1973) Intertidal esutary Kurose River Estuary, Japan 1.8 b Present study a Value was determined under submerged conditions b Value was determined under air-exposed conditions Landscape Ecol Eng (2012) 8:107-114 111 monthly respiration was minimum in February (4.7 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) and maximum in August (11.5 g CO 2 -C m -2 ). In terrestrial habitats, extremely low soil respiration in winter is common (e.g., Mariko et al 2000;Rayment and Jarvis 2000;Mo et al 2005).…”