Figure 3: Nutrient-enriched marshes have a large number of inactive taxa.

Order-level taxonomic composition of fertilized (red) and reference (blue) sediments assessed by the log10 16S rRNA:16S rRNA gene ratio for the microbial orders comprising 90% of all sequences. Orders coloured blue are significantly more abundant in reference sediments (Kruskal–Wallis test, Bonferroni corrected P<0.001) while red orders are significantly more abundant in N-enriched sediments. Black line is a 16S rRNA:16S rRNA gene ratio of 1. Taxa with a ratio higher than 1 are considered active and taxa with ratios lower than 1 are considered dormant. Points are the mean and error bars are s.e.m.