Resistance and Resilience of microbial communities from Saltmarshes impacted by rising seawater levels

Saltmarshes are crucial ecosystems that provide ecosystem services, including nutrient absorption and water quality improvement. However, saltmarshes are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including inundation as sea levels rise, storms, salinity and sediment anoxia. These disturbances directly affect the processes that regulate bacterial community composition and functionality. Here we created a mesocosms to simulate flooding events and subsequent recovery process of a saltmarsh and pasture areas. We analysed the microbial structure, functional metabolic profile and the variations when the soil microbiota was exposed to flooding and subsequent recovery times