Baltic Sea sediment bacterial communities show asymmetric and incomplete recovery after reciprocal temperature change translocation
Abstract
Marine coastal systems are important for global biogeochemical cycling and are particularly sensitive to climate change effects due to their shallow depths, which results in rapid heat transfer to the sediments. Here we used one-year reciprocal in situ translocations of sediments between a Baltic Sea long-term (>50 years) warming-influenced bay and a nearby unaffected control bay to predict how the sediments and their associated bacterial communities may respond to future climate change and whether those changes were reversible. Geochemical parameters, methane plus sulfate profiles, and 16S rRNA gene-based bacterial diversity and community composition show partial convergence of the sediment-parameters to the translocated environment, suggesting climate change will rapidly alter bacteria communities of Baltic Sea coastal sediments. However, more pronounced responses in the control to the heated bay translocation direction suggest that while a return toward present-day conditions may be possible if climate change is reversed, such a recovery may be incomplete or require a longer time than one year.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026baltic,
title = {{Baltic Sea sediment bacterial communities show asymmetric and incomplete recovery after reciprocal temperature change translocation}},
author = {Songjun Li and Romana Salis and Jessica Alice Wallbank and Ida Krogsgaard Svendsen and Cheng Chang and Laura Seidel and Johanna Sunde and Iryna Rula and Emelie Nilsson and Mahboubeh Rahmati Abkenar and Samuel Hylander and Marcelo Ketzer and Anders Forsman and Mark Dopson},
journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04147-x},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04147-x},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Baltic Sea sediment bacterial communities show asymmetric and incomplete recovery after reciprocal temperature change translocation
AU - Songjun Li
AU - Romana Salis
AU - Jessica Alice Wallbank
AU - Ida Krogsgaard Svendsen
AU - Cheng Chang
AU - Laura Seidel
AU - Johanna Sunde
AU - Iryna Rula
AU - Emelie Nilsson
AU - Mahboubeh Rahmati Abkenar
AU - Samuel Hylander
AU - Marcelo Ketzer
AU - Anders Forsman
AU - Mark Dopson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
DO - 10.1038/s43247-026-04147-x
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04147-x
AB - Marine coastal systems are important for global biogeochemical cycling and are particularly sensitive to climate change effects due to their shallow depths, which results in rapid heat transfer to the sediments. Here we used one-year reciprocal in situ translocations of sediments between a Baltic Sea long-term (>50 years) warming-influenced bay and a nearby unaffected control bay to predict how the sediments and their associated bacterial communities may respond to future climate change and whether those changes were reversible. Geochemical parameters, methane plus sulfate profiles, and 16S rRNA gene-based bacterial diversity and community composition show partial convergence of the sediment-parameters to the translocated environment, suggesting climate change will rapidly alter bacteria communities of Baltic Sea coastal sediments. However, more pronounced responses in the control to the heated bay translocation direction suggest that while a return toward present-day conditions may be possible if climate change is reversed, such a recovery may be incomplete or require a longer time than one year.
SN - 2662-4435
ER -