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Coastal mangrove wetlands have an excellent potential in sequestrating atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) owing to their high primary productivity as well as slow anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. Yet, there is hitherto a paucity of researches examining the temporal variations and environmental controls of ecosystem-scale CO₂ fluxes in subtropical mangroves using quasi-continuous, high temporal resolution measurements. In this study, we measured the net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE) between the atmosphere and a subtropical estuarine mangrove dominated by Kandelia obovata using an eddy covariance system for two full years to investigate the seasonal variability and key biophysical drivers of NEE. During the wet seasons, the magnitude of increase in ecosystem respiration (Re) was greater than that in gross primary productivity (GPP) owing to a combination of higher temperature and lower …