Impact of plant functional group, plant species, and sampling time on the composition of nirK-type denitrifier communities in soil.

ABSTRACT: We studied the influence of eight nonleguminous grassland plant species belonging to two functional groups (grasses and forbs) on the composition of soil denitrifier communities in experimental microcosms over two consecutive years. Denitrifier community composition was analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of PCR-amplified nirK gene fragments coding for the copper-containing nitrite reductase. The impact of experimental factors (plant functional group, plant species, sampling time, and interactions between them) on the structure of soil denitrifier communities (i.e., T-RFLP patterns) was analyzed by canonical correspondence analysis. While the functional group of a plant did not affect nirK-type denitrifier communities, plant species identity did influence

SUBMITTER: Bremer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2074960 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature