Microbial diversity after sediment drying and bedform migration

Climate change and agriculturally induced riverbed erosion have increased drying and bedform migration in sandy lowland rivers. Microbial communities residing in benthic biofilms are significantly impacted by both stressors in their functional processes and structural composition. Our experiment aimed to investigate the long-term effects of either intense riverbed drying (90 days) or periodic ripple migration on the sediment-associated bacterial and fungal community. After placing the communities back to inundated and stationary conditions to initiate the recovery process, the community composition was analyzed after 0, 21, and 105 days.