Abstract
Wetland ecosystems rely on complex microbial communities to maintain soil homeostasis through long-distance electron transport (LDET). Thermodesulfobacteriota is one of the most important soil microbes that facilitate LDET; however, it remains poorly understood how different soil conditions, such as conductivity, influence how these bacteria thrive in wetland environments. This study evaluated the impact of soil conductivity using a 16S rRNA dataset of 55 Northeastern American wetland samples. It was observed that low-conductivity environments, defined by a below 0.3 mS/cm threshold, exhibit significantly higher phylogenic richness and community homogeneity compared to high-conductivity sites. While alpha diversity remained stable, taxonomic profiling indicated a significant increase in the relative abundance of Geobacter in low conductivity environments (p < 0.05). The Spearman’s rank correlation identified a strong negative relationship between conductivity and Geobacter abundance (rho = -0.499), whereas Desulfobulbaceae abundance remained consistent across samples. These results demonstrate that Geobacter abundance is significantly higher in low-conductivity wetland sediments, identifying soil conductivity as an environmental factor associated with the distribution of conductive microbial guilds. These findings highlight environmental conductivity as a primary factor shaping the distribution of conductive microbial guilds in freshwater aquatic systems.