BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE INVESTED ANNUALLY TO MITIGATE WATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURE, A MAJOR SOURCE OF NUTRIENTS THAT CAUSE LOW-OXYGEN DEAD ZONES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. WETLANDS CAN STORE EXCESS RUNOFF FOR IRRIGATION AND HAVE EXCEPTIONAL CAPACITY FOR RETAINING NUTRIENTS BEFORE THEY CAUSE PROBLEMS DOWNSTREAM. THUS, WETLAND CREATION AND RESTORATION IS A COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION THAT GIVES FARMERS MORE RESILIENT WATER SUPPLIES AND IMPROVES WATER QUALITY DOWNSTREAM. WETLANDS IMPROVE WATER QUALITY BY REMOVING EXCESS NITRATE AND RETAINING PHOSPHORUS IN SEDIMENTS. HOWEVER, WETLANDS ALSO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF POTENT GREENHOUSE GASSES, NAMELY METHANE (CH4) AND NITROUS OXIDE (NO2).OUR WORK WILL ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM, BY IDENTIFYING WETLAND DESIGNS AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES THAT WILL MAXIMIZE RETENTION OF NUTRIENTS AND MINIMIZE EMISSIONS OF GREENHOUSE GASSES. WE HAVE IDENTIFIED WETLAND PLANT COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND HYDROPERIOD, THE AMOUNT OF TIME A WETLAND IS INUNDATED, AS TWO KEY FACTORS THAT TOGETHER INFLUENCE WATER QUALITY AND GREENHOUSE GAS PRODUCTION. WE WILL IDENTIFY THE COMBINATION OF WETLAND PLANTS AND HYDROPERIOD THAT RESULTS IN MAXIMIZED RETENTION OF NITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS WITH MINIMAL RELEASE OF GREENHOUSE GASSES. WE WILL ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS WITH LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS, FIELD-SCALE SAMPLING, AND INTEGRATIVE MODELING. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS WILL BE USED TO TEST HOW CHANGES TO PLANT COMMUNITY AND HYDROPERIOD INFLUENCE MICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND WATER CHEMISTRY UNDER CONTROLLED SETTINGS. WE WILL USE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SENSORS (E.G., METHANE, ORGANIC MATTER) COLLECTED ACROSS OUR WETLAND STUDY SITE TO BUILD AND IMPROVE MODELS. THESE MODELS WILL BE USED TO IDENTIFY HOW WETLANDS SHOULD BE DESIGNED AND RESTORED TO MAXIMIZE BENEFITS TO WATER AND AIR QUALITY. TO AID ADOPTION OF NEW STRATEGIES, WE WILL COMMUNICATE THE RESULTING WETLAND DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS TO AGENCIES, PRACTITIONERS, AND PRODUCERS WHO IMPLEMENT DRAINAGE WATERMANAGEMENT.