Abstract
Wetlands are characterised by soils rich in organic matter that accumulate carbon, providing an important pathway for carbon dioxide sequestration. Nevertheless, not all the carbon fixed can be accumulated, and a proportion will decompose through microbial consumption and be partly released into the atmosphere. Rates of organic matter decomposition in tropical wetlands and the factors associated with this process are scarce. We conducted a 2-year field study in three Melaleuca wetlands in tropical and subtropical Australia using standardised tea litter substrates (green-labile and rooibos-recalcitrant) to measure organic matter decomposition and the microbial communities associated with this process. Decomposition rates were 4-fold higher in labile litter, which was low in carbon: nitrogen, compared to recalcitrant litter. The prokaryotic communities associated with the decomposing litter were unique at each site and different from the soil. They contained taxonomic groups adapted to anaerobic, high temperatures, acidic conditions and suggestive of slow anaerobic turnover. Microbial communities changed as decomposition progressed, with the latter characterised by taxa with cellulose-degrading functions. The decomposition of recalcitrant organic matter within Melaleuca soils was relatively slow, with half of the organic matter inputs remaining after two years, supporting long-term carbon sequestration.
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Data availability
Amplicon data are available at the European Nucleotide Archive under project accessions PRJEB50314 (tea litter) and PRJEB50315 (bulk soils). Soil physical and chemical properties and organic matter decomposition data will be available open access at Griffith Data Repository (https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au) upon acceptance of the manuscript.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Traditional Owners of the land in which this research took place, especially the Nywaigi and Gulnay people. We also thank Sam and Santo Lamari for allowing us to work in their property and sharing with us their knowledge on wetlands. We are grateful to the Wetlands Team at the Department for Environment and Science for guidance, and to Bahar Farahani and Emad Kavehei for field assistance. Thanks to Deakin University's Genomics Centre, particularly Dr Stella Loke.
Funding
STT was supported by the ARC DECRA DE210101029, and MFA was supported by an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship.
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MFA, SMTT and PM contributed to the conception and design of the study; MFA and NI conducted fieldwork and laboratory work, MFA, NI and STT analysed the data, MFA wrote the first draft and all co-authors contributed to the writing of the final draft of the manuscript.
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Adame, M.F., Iram, N., Macreadie, P. et al. Organic matter decomposition and associated microbial communities in wetlands: insights from tropical and subtropical Melaleuca forests in Australia. Hydrobiologia 851, 1577–1588 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05407-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05407-z