Bacterial community structure and soil properties of a subarctic tundra soil in Council, Alaska. Issue 2 (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Hye Min; Jung, Ji Young; Yergeau, Etienne; Hwang, Chung Yeon; Hinzman, Larry; Nam, Sungjin; Hong, Soon Gyu; Kim, Ok‐Sun; Chun, Jongsik; Lee, Yoo Kyung
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology ecology. Volume 89:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 465
• Page End: 475
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6941.12362
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0168-6496

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fem12362-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The subarctic region is highly responsive and vulnerable to climate change. Understanding the structure of subarctic soil microbial communities is essential for predicting the response of the subarctic soil environment to climate change. To determine the composition of the bacterial community and its relationship with soil properties, we investigated the bacterial community structure and properties of surface soil from the moist acidic tussock tundra in Council, Alaska. We collected 70 soil samples with 25‐m intervals between sampling points from 0–10 cm to 10–20 cm depths. The bacterial community was analyzed by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes, and the following soil properties were analyzed: soil moisture content (MC), pH, total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and inorganic nitrogen (<inline-formula><alternatives><inline-graphic mimetype="image" xlink:href="ark:/27927/pghxt61fj6" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /><mml:math altimg="urn:x-wiley:01686496:media:fem12362:fem12362-math-0001" overflow="scroll" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mtext>NH</mml:mtext><mml:mn>4</mml:mn><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:msubsup></mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><alternatives><inline-graphic mimetype="image" xlink:href="ark:/27927/pghxt61f0x" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /><mml:math altimg="urn:x-wiley:01686496:media:fem12362:fem12362-math-0002" overflow="scroll" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mtext>NO</mml:mtext><mml:mn>3</mml:mn><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:msubsup></mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula>). The community compositions of the two different depths showed that <italic>Alphaproteobacteria</italic> decreased with soil depth. Among the soil properties measured, soil pH was the most significant factor correlating with bacterial community in both upper and lower‐layer soils. Bacterial community similarity based on jackknifed unweighted <sc>unifrac</sc> distance showed greater similarity across horizontal layers than through the vertical depth. This study showed that soil depth and pH were the most important soil properties determining bacterial community structure of the subarctic tundra soil in Council, Alaska.</p> </abstract>