Assessment Of Microbial Communities In High Altitude Wetlands Disturbed By Iron And Manganese

The Sorrento wetland is a high altitude wetland that has been disturbed due to anthropogenic activity. It has been previously established that this disturbance has led to several Fe and Mn seeps that contribute to high levels of Fe and Mn in stream and wetland water and sediment. While these high metal concentrations have led to decreases in the diversity of the benthic macroinvertebrate community, it is still unknown the extent to which these high metal concentrations have effected the microbial community. Four methods were chosen to characterize the microbial community at the site of the seeps, an upstream reference site, and a downstream wetland site.