| description |
As air temperatures are expected to rise in the future, ice-rich permafrost may thaw and, consequently, alter soil topography and hydrology, creating a mosaic of wet and dry soil surfaces in the Arctic. This study investigates how a decade-long drying manipulation on an Arctic floodplain influences microbial community structure, which can play a critical role in the carbon cycle, e.g., determining the fate of soil carbon that has been accumulated in permafrost regions. The study site is located in a floodplain of the Kolyma River near Chersky, Northeastern Siberia. To investigate the effects of long-term drainage on microbial community structure, two areas are selected: one area that has been drained since 2004 (i.e., drained area; 68° 36’ 47” N, 161° 20’ 29” E) and the other area that has not been manipulated (i.e., control area; 68° 37’ 00” N, 161° 20’ 59” E). The drainage ditch lowered water table depth (WTD) by 20 cm on average, but WTD highly varied within each area. Thus, this variation in WTD within each area yielded four area categories for this study site; drained_wet (wet microsite in drained area), drained_dry (dry microsite in drained area), control_wet (wet microsite in control area), and control_dry (dry microsite in control area). Soil cores were taken from four locations of each category, and microbial community structure was analyzed on an Illumina MiSeq platform. |