Surface and pore water sampling: Dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in the water column and pore water was sampled one hour after high tide when the water started to drain from the mangrove forest. High tides were monitored from the tidal station in Curaçao which is 76 km away from Bonaire, and had to be corrected by direct field observations due to a changing delay inside the bay depending on individual hydrodynamics of each channel and the tidal cycles. All water samples were taken within one hour after high tide. Surface water was retrieved from the upper 30 cm with a bucket and filtered through 0.7 μm GF/F filters (Whatman) into glass vials with rubber tabs – 24 ml vials for DOC and 12 ml vials for DIC. Before sampling all vials were washed and rinsed three times with MiliQ water. Then they were heated in an oven for 4 hours at 450 °C to remove any organic remains. The rubbers were rinsed for 24 hours in MiliQ water. Two blanks were prepared for each parameter with boiling drinking bottle water to ...