Metagenomics reveals that water-salt gradients in littoral zone wetlands of semi-arid lakes drive shifts in C-degradation genes and microbial communities

From the perspective of functional genes encoding CAZymes, we first analyzed the overall distribution and response of carbon cycling genes across different water-salt gradients using metagenomic sequencing. We then focused on investigating the response of organic carbon-degrading enzyme genes and their corresponding microbial communities to varying water-salt conditions. The objectives of this study are: (i) to explore the response of soil C-cycling functional genes to different water-salt gradients; (ii) to investigate the response of enzyme genes involved in the degradation of plant- and microbial-derived carbon and their corresponding microbial communities to varying water-salt gradients; and (iii) to predict the driving factors influencing the abundance of plant- and microbial-derived carbon-degrading enzyme genes.