Impact of sea level change on coastal soil organic matter, priming effects and prokaryotic community assembly.
Salt marshes are coastal areas storing high amounts of soil organic matter (SOM) while simultaneously being prone to tidal changes. Here, SOM-decomposition and accompanied priming effects (PE), which describe interactions between labile and old SOM, were studied under controlled flooding conditions. Soil samples from two Wadden Sea salt marsh zones, pioneer (Pio), flooded two times/day, and lower salt marsh (Low), flooded ∼eight times/month, were measured for 56 days concerning CO2-efflux and prokaryotic community shifts during three different inundation-treatments: Total-drained (Drained), all-time-flooded (Waterlogged) or temporal-flooding (Tidal). Priming was induced by 14C-glucose addition. CO2-efflux from soil followed Low>Pio and Tidal>Drained>Waterlogged likely due to O2-depletion and moisture maintenance, two key factors governed by tidal inundation regarding SOM mineralisation. PE's in both zones were positive (Drained) or absent (Waterlogged, Tidal) presumably by prokaryotes switching from production of extracellular enzymes to direct incorporation of labile C. A doubled amount prokaryotic biomass in Low compared to Pio probably induced higher chances of cometabolic effects and higher PE. 16S-rRNA-gene-amplicon-based analysis revealed differences in bacterial and archaeal community composition between both zones revealing temporal niche adaptation in both zones with flooding treatment. Strongest alterations were found in Drained likely due to inundation mediated changes in C binding capacities.