Wetlands store more carbon per unit area than any ecosystem, and wetland restoration is a means by which society can sequester carbon, reduce flood dangers and improve wildlife habitat and water quality, yet the microbial communities inhabiting freshwater wetlands are only minimally characterized. This first-of-a-kind carbon sequestration project will employ metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and single-cell sequencing to characterize soil microbial communities in a “carbon farm” on Twitchell Island in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta where peat islands previously used for agriculture are being restored to wetlands.
Principal Investigators: Susannah Tringe, DOE JGI
Program: CSP 2011