| Summary: | Salt marshes offer a variety of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, storm buffering capacity, food web support, and nutrient filtration. Many of these ecosystem services are facilitated by the extant microbial communities in marsh sediments. Despite the importance of these services, salt marshes, and the microbes within them, are threatened by sea level rise, climate change, human development, and pollution, all of which lead to their degradation. Recently, increased efforts to restore these ecosystems makes it imperative to understand how these restoration efforts alter the microbial community and their associated ecosystem functions. I used a Before-After, Control-Impact design to examine changes in environmental parameters and the microbial community in the native Spartina alterniflora vegetation as well as in invasive (Phragmites australis) and freshwater (Typha sp.) dominated habitats before and after restoration of tidal flooding and compared with three nearby S. alterniflora marshes. To evaluate the response of salt marsh microbes, I sequenced the 16S rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region to assess the total prokaryotic and fungal communities, respectively. The greatest change in the environment was measured within the previously oligohaline reaches of the restored marsh, and these habitats were both on a trajectory of recovery towards the reference marshes. The microbial community in all three habitats within the restored marsh was different from reference marshes, and both the prokaryotic and fungal communities within P. australis and Typha sp. habitats became more similar to reference marshes over time. This suggests a return of vital microbially-mediated ecosystem services to the formerly degraded marsh. Monitoring changes in microbial community structure might provide a relatively easy way to assess whether restoration efforts are on a trajectory toward reference marshes early in the restoration process.
|
|---|
