Wetland restoration efforts aim to enhance the structure and function of degraded and damaged wetlands. Unfortunately, restoration techniques often alter a site's soil habitat and plant community structure, which affect the activity and composition of microbial communities. Microbial community structure and activity, as a function of soil texture and plant inputs, were studied in soils collected from a restored and a natural tidal freshwater wetland for a period of nine weeks. We expected that increasing the clay content of restored soils from 13% to 20% and 30% would increase soil C retention via sorption and reduce the carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emissions. To elucidate the role of plant inputs in shaping the microbial community and function, plant litter with contrasting C-to-nitrogen (N) ratios were added to test the hypothesis that a greater portion of plant leaf-C from the nutrient-poor plant, Phragmites australis, would be mineralized to CO₂ and CH₄ than the nutrient-rich plant, Peltandra virginica. We also expected P. virginica would support a more abundant and diverse microbial community than P. australis. Unexpectedly, we found that increasing the clay content of restored soils caused a marginal reduction in the total amount of C partitioned as CO₂ and CH₄, while the nutrient-rich plant, P. virginica, emitted more CO₂ and CH₄ than the nutrient-poor plant, P. australis. Furthermore, clay and plant leaf litter amendments had a greater impact on the size, diversity, and composition of the microbial population in restored than natural wetland soils. Overall, we found that increasing clay content in a restored wetland had a limited effect on soil C retention. We also discovered that plant litter significantly altered the underlying structure of the microbial community in restored wetland soils, suggesting greater plant diversity may lead to a more stable, resilient microbial community.

湿地恢复工作旨在增强退化和受损湿地的结构和功能。不幸的是，修复技术通常会改变场地的土壤生境和植物群落结构，从而影响微生物群落的活动和组成。研究了从恢复的天然潮汐淡水湿地收集的土壤中微生物群落结构和活性（随土壤质地和植物投入的变化）的情况，持续了九周。我们预期将恢复后的土壤中的粘土含量从13％增加到20％和30％将通过吸附增加土壤碳的保留并减少二氧化碳（CO ₂）和甲烷（CH _4））排放。为了阐明植物投入物在塑造微生物群落和功能中的作用，添加了具有相反的C / N（N）比的植物凋落物，以检验以下假设：营养贫乏的植物中较大的植物叶C，与营养丰富的植物Peltandra virginica相比，芦苇会矿化成CO ₂和CH ₄。我们还期望弗吉尼亚假单胞菌比澳大利亚假单胞菌支持的微生物群落更加丰富和多样。出乎意料的是，我们发现增加恢复土壤的粘土含量会导致分配为CO ₂和CH ₄的C总量略有减少，而富营养植物P. virginica排放的CO ₂和CH ₄比贫营养植物P. australis多。此外，与天然湿地土壤相比，粘土和植物凋落物改良剂对恢复的微生物种群的大小，多样性和组成具有更大的影响。总体而言，我们发现在恢复的湿地中增加粘土含量对土壤碳保留的影响有限。我们还发现，植物凋落物显着改变了恢复的湿地土壤中微生物群落的基础结构，这表明更大的植物多样性可能导致更稳定，更有弹性的微生物群落。