Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Rewetting of Three Drained Peatlands Drives Congruent Compositional Changes in Pro- and Eukaryotic Soil Microbiomes through Environmental Filtering

Micha Weil
* ORCID logo ,
Haitao Wang
ORCID logo ,
Mia Bengtsson
ORCID logo ,
Daniel Köhn
,
Anke Günther
,
Gerald Jurasinski
ORCID logo ,
John Couwenberg
,
Wakene Negassa
,
Dominik Zak
ORCID logo ,
Tim Urich
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 15 February 2020 / Approved: 16 February 2020 / Online: 16 February 2020 (16:22:46 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Weil, M.; Wang, H.; Bengtsson, M.; Köhn, D.; Günther, A.; Jurasinski, G.; Couwenberg, J.; Negassa, W.; Zak, D.; Urich, T. Long-Term Rewetting of Three Formerly Drained Peatlands Drives Congruent Compositional Changes in Pro- and Eukaryotic Soil Microbiomes through Environmental Filtering. Microorganisms 2020, 8, 550. Weil, M.; Wang, H.; Bengtsson, M.; Köhn, D.; Günther, A.; Jurasinski, G.; Couwenberg, J.; Negassa, W.; Zak, D.; Urich, T. Long-Term Rewetting of Three Formerly Drained Peatlands Drives Congruent Compositional Changes in Pro- and Eukaryotic Soil Microbiomes through Environmental Filtering. Microorganisms 2020, 8, 550.

Abstract

Drained peatlands are significant sources of the greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide. Rewetting is a proven strategy to protect carbon stocks; however, it can lead to increased emissions of the potent GHG methane. The response to rewetting of soil microbiomes as drivers of these processes is poorly understood, as are biotic and abiotic factors that control community composition. We analyzed the pro- and eukaryotic microbiomes of three contrasting pairs of minerotrophic fens subject to decade-long drainage and subsequent rewetting. Also, abiotic soil properties including moisture, dissolved organic matter, methane fluxes and ecosystem respiration rates. The composition of the microbiomes was fen-type-specific, but all rewetted sites showed higher abundance of anaerobic taxa compared to drained sites. Based on multi-variate statistics and network analyses we identified soil moisture as major driver of community composition. Furthermore, salinity drove the separation between coastal and freshwater fen communities. Methanogens were more than tenfold more abundant in rewetted than in drained sites, while their abundance was lowest in the coastal fen, likely due to competition with sulfate reducers. The microbiome compositions were reflected in methane fluxes from the sites. Our results shed light on the factors that structure fen microbiomes via environmental filtering.

Keywords

peatland management; microbiome; methanogens; dissolved organic matter; Methylococcaceae; sulfate

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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