Using metagenomics to reveal landscape scale patterns of denitrifiers in a montane forest ecosystem

Publication date: Available online 4 September 2019Source: Soil Biology and BiochemistryAuthor(s): C. Armanda Roco, Peter Dörsch, James G. Booth, Charles Pepe-Ranney, Peter M. Groffman, Timothy J. Fahey, Joseph B. Yavitt, James P. ShapleighAbstractDenitrification has been implicated as an important aspect of the nitrogen cycle in many soil ecosystems, but the relationships between process rates and the genotype of denitrifying microorganisms are poorly understood. This relationship is crucial where denitrifiers with less than the full complement of nitrogen-oxide reductases might play a crucial role in denitrification, such as in montane forest landscapes. Therefore, a metagenomics survey was undertaken using soils from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire, USA where steep elevation, vegetation, and soil gradients provide a complex landscape matrix to assess occurrence patterns and influences on the genes involved in denitrification. DNA was extracted from soils taken from three soil horizons, at three elevations, in two watersheds. Metagenomic analysis of reads showed that the relative abundance of denitrification genes within a community did not differ across soil depths but did vary among elevation zones, with total denitrification reads in High Hardwood > Spruce Fir > Low Hardwood. Reads from nirS were extremely rare, which suggests that complete denitrification was rare. The gene with the largest proportion of denitrification specific re...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research