C storage and inorganic nutrients remain sequestered within the poorly degraded peat

matrix when decomposition is low. This impairment of nutrient cycling causes inorganic

nutrients to accumulate and to be retained within the wetland (Freeman et al., 1996).

 Phenol oxidase activity, which controls lignin degradation and is dependent on 02

availability, has demonstrated varying results to water level decreases and has been

referred to as an "enzymic latch" controlling C mineralization (Freeman et al., 2001).

Phenol oxidase (PHE) has been observed to increase with depth (Lahdesmaki and

Piispanen, 1988), decrease with decreased dissolved 02 availability (Pind et al., 1994),

exhibit no discernible variability with depth (Duxbury and Tate, 1981), increase in

drought conditions (Freeman et al., 2001) and not respond predictably to drought

conditions (Williams et al., 2000b). The mechanisms behind PHE variability may also

include induction by the presence of certain phenolic materials among other inducible

and repressible controls.

 Other studies have investigated the effects of a water level decrease on flooded

sediment microbial respiration. Linear increases in CO2 flux were found with lowered

water table depth down to 50 cm in Everglades sawgrass peat sediments (Volk, 1973).

Increased microbial biomass and C flux in drought conditions has also been observed in

peatland cores (Blodau et al., 2004). The highest total C flux as a function of combined

CO2 and CH4 evolution was found under controlled drainage conditions 15 cm below an

Everglades peat surface and was thought to be time dependent due to the water holding

capacity of the peat matrix (DeBusk, 1996).

 The mineralization of soil organic nitrogen (N) sources has been found to be

greater in aerobic than anaerobic conditions (Reddy and Patrick, 1984; McLatchey and