Analysis of microbial communities in fens affected by natural drought in the context of methane cycling

Drought events are expected to increase in frequency during the next century. This is likely to alter the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and the communities of microorganisms involved in its transformation. In this study, 16S amplicon sequencing of genomic DNA and cDNA was utilized to analyze the community structure of methane-cycling microbes following a summer of intense drought in two restored fens. Duplicate cores were collected from both dry and wet unvegetated areas in a coastal brackish and freshwater fen in Northeastern Germany. Results from genomic DNA sequencing were compared to previous studies at the same sites to assess potential changes in community composition following drought, while cDNA results were used to determine potentially active microbes.