Surface water wetlands positioned to intercept nonpoint-source nutrient loads play a critical role in reducing nitrate (NO₃⁻) exports from tile-drained agricultural watersheds but at the potential cost of increased nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. The magnitude of these emissions, and the underlying mechanisms controlling them, remain uncertain, largely due to historically infrequent monitoring that fails to consider the possibility of strong spatial and temporal variability in wetland N₂O dynamics, potentially biasing wetland-scale emission estimates. Addressing this uncertainty requires a whole-system approach that integrates close-interval monitoring of surface water N2O mass imports and exports with detailed measurements of wetland pool N2O flux rates. Here, we apply such an approach to characterize multi-season N₂O dynamics in a wetland restored to intercept nutrient loads from an intensively cropped, tile-drained catchment in central Iowa, USA. During spring through fall 2025, surface water N₂O imports and exports were estimated using continuous flow measurements paired with intensive dissolved N₂O sampling at the wetland inlet and outlet. Wetland N₂O emission rates were also surveyed weekly at 20 internal pool locations using a flow-through dynamic floating chamber coupled to a LiCOR 7820 trace gas analyzer, alongside measurements of dissolved N₂O, NO₃⁻, water temperature, and vegetation cover. Dissolved N₂O concentrations at the inlet and outlet varied from 0.29 to 25 µg N₂O–N L⁻¹, while internal pool concentrations ranged from 0.11 to 75 µg N₂O–N L⁻¹. Wetland N₂O fluxes exhibited pronounced spatial and temporal variability, ranging from −0.010 to 1.56 µg N₂O–N m⁻² s⁻¹, with a mean annual flux of 0.144 µg N₂O–N m⁻² s⁻¹. These data provide the foundation for developing a coupled NO₃⁻–N₂O mass balance model for this system that explicitly accounts for dissolved N₂O imports, exports, and surface emissions, allowing for the reasonable estimation of net internal N₂O production. This work promises to improve our understanding of how nutrient reduction wetlands contribute to NO₃⁻ reduction and N₂O emissions from agricultural landscapes.