The proposal calls for metagenomic and metatranscriptomics sequencing, and metabolomics analysis from salt marsh sediments exposed to a decade of chronic anthropogenic nitrate enrichment. These sediments are part of a multi-PI research project at the Plum Island LTER where the team has been fertilizing two whole salt marsh creeks since 2004, while maintaining two additional creeks as unenriched references. The experiment proposed will allow researchers to understand how an important global change driver, nutrient supply, alters the capacity of salt marshes to store carbon, which is essential to the mission of JGI.
Proposer: Jennifer Bowen, Northeastern University
Proposal: Nitrate in coastal waters: shifting the balance from carbon sink to carbon source