Community Succession and Greenhouse Gas Release in Low Oxygen Sediments

Eutrophication has caused many coastal areas to have oxygen deficient bottom waters. This is today common in the Baltic Sea and typically manifest during summer when the temperature increase. Climate change accelerates the expansion of oxygen deficient areas by increasing the water temperature.

However, it is unknown how community succession during transitions to-and-after oxygen deficient conditions affects the ecosystem functioning of benthic communities, biodiversity, and active metabolic process.

Furthermore, it is unknown how these processes are interlinked in low oxygen sediments and contribute to greenhouse gas release.

The project includes field and experimental studies using DNA and RNA sequencing to investigate how the succession or decline of benthic communities (prokaryotes, meiofauna i.e. animals