Meanders as a scaling motif for understanding of floodplain soil microbiome and biogeochemical potential at the watershed scale. soil metagenome

Microbially-mediated biogeochemical processes that occur at the micron-scale impact watershed function and ecosystem outputs at the tens of kilometers scale. We hypothesized that detailed analysis of soil microbial communities inhabiting meander-bound floodplains along the East River (CO), can generate insights about biogeochemical processes that can be used to approximate the function of the larger system. We leveraged genome-resolved metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to infer processes that contribute to C, N, and S cycling in the riparian zone of the East River watershed based on the metabolic potential and activity of the soil microbial communities.