Bacterial community repsonse to changes in soil mositure and plant presence in a wetland mesocosm manipulation

Wetland ecosystems play an important role in global biogeochemical processes such as carbon cycling. Biogeochemical processes are often the result of microbial respiration. Microbial communities are sensitive to soil oxygen concentrations. Therefore environmental factors that modify soil oxygen concentrations can impact microbial community structure and function. Here we use a mesocosm experiment to explore changes in microbial community structure and function due to past and present hydrologic status of soil in the presence and absence of plants.