Microorganisms as drivers of CH4 production and exchange in coastal fens after brackish water inflow

Rewetted peatlands can be a significant source of methane (CH4), but in coastal ecosystems, input of sulfate-rich seawater could potentially mitigate these emissions. The presence of sulfate as electron acceptor during organic matter decomposition is known to suppress methanogenesis, by favoring the growth of sulfate-reducers, which outcompete methanogens for substrate. We investigated the effects of a brackish water inflow on the microbial communities relative to CH4 production-consumption dynamics in a freshwater rewetted fen at the southern Baltic Sea coast after a storm surge in January 2019 and analyzed our data in context with the previous freshwater rewetted state (2014 serves as our baseline) and the conditions after a severe drought in 2018. We took peat cores at four previously sampled locations along a brackishness gradient to compare soil and pore water geochemistry as well as the microbial methane and sulfate cycling communities with the previous conditions. We used high-throughput sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to characterize pools of DNA and cDNA targeting total and putatively active bacteria and archaea. Furthermore, we measured CH4 fluxes along the gradient and determined the concentrations and isotopic signatures of trace gases in the peat.