Response of free-living nitrogen-fixing microorganisms to land use change in the Amazon rainforest.

ABSTRACT: The Amazon rainforest, the largest equatorial forest in the world, is being cleared for pasture and agricultural use at alarming rates. Tropical deforestation is known to cause alterations in microbial communities at taxonomic and phylogenetic levels, but it is unclear whether microbial functional groups are altered. We asked whether free-living nitrogen-fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs) respond to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, using analysis of the marker gene nifH. Clone libraries were generated from soil samples collected from a primary forest, a 5-year-old pasture originally converted from primary forest, and a secondary forest established after pasture abandonment. Although diazotroph richness did not significantly change among the three plots, diazotroph community composi

SUBMITTER: Mirza BS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3911016 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature