Restoration experiment 16S soil microbial community

Following an oil spill, treatment with plants and fertilizer is a common method of restoration in wetland ecosystems. An experimental field study was established to test the effectiveness of remediation treatments on accelerating recovery rates in Barataria Bay marshes impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The experiment was a manipulative field study with a factorial design including plots planted with Spartina alterniflora, plots planted with Juncus roemerianus, and plots that were not planted, each with and without application of the control-released N, P and K fertilizer. Each planting and fertilizing combination occurred in a 2.1 M sqared plot, and each treatment combination was replicated in the marsh 5 times, so the total number of treament combinations is 6 and the total number of plots is 30. In order to understand how restoration affects the soil microbial community, hyper variable region V4 of the 16S was sequenced from soil samples from each treatment over 3 years. Sampling occurred twice per year, in the spring and fall. Soil chemistry, vegetation, and fauna data were also collected at the time of sampling.