wetland metagenome Metagenome

Representative soils collected from a restored tidal freshwater wetland and a nearby natural “reference” marsh were used in experimental manipulations designed to quantify the effects of soil texture and plant litter quality on C mineralization and microbial community structure. The texture of soils collected from a restored tidal freshwater wetland were manipulated by increasing the clay content from 13% to 20% and 30%. Soil from a nearby natural “reference” wetland containing 42% clay was used as a comparison. Soil microcosms were continuously monitored over a 9-week period to track C mineralization of contrasting plant organic C inputs. Microcosms were destructively sampled at three time points to track changes in microbial community composition and soil physiochemical properties. Libraries of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene were constructed following Illumina’s 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing library preparation protocol. Pair-end reads were generated on a MiSeq platform using a 600-cycle v3 Reagent Kit.