New publication on microbial activity and carbon turnover in soils undergoing periodic water table fluctuations

Vadose Zone Journal now features an open access publication by researchers Geertje Pronk, Adrian Mellage, Tatjana Milojevic, Christina Smeaton, Katja Engel, Josh Neufeld, Fereidoun Rezanezhad and Philippe Van Cappellen. The study found that water table fluctuations in soil environments result in localized enhancement of aerobic organic carbon degradation, yielding pulses of carbon dioxide effluxes, driven by a more active, rather than more abundant or compositionally more diverse microbial community.