Bacteria Raw sequence reads. Bacteria

This is bacterial community structure in the root zone of two typical tidal marsh plants (Spartina alterniflora and P. australis) in the Min River Estuary, East China Sea. A rhizobox is adopted in this study, which could be separated as one root compartment (i.e. rhizosphere) and two side soil compartments (i.e. bulk soil). In this study, we operationally defined the bulk soil layer 5 mm outward from mesh partition as “inner bulk soil”, and the rest as “outer bulk soil”. The specific goal of this study is to: (i) determine rhizosphere effect on total SOC decomposition and each terminal metabolic pathway in the organic-poor tidal marsh; (ii) explore the relation between the terminal metabolic pathway and bacterial community structure from rhizosphere to bulk soil.