Soil bacterial community structure responses to precipitation reduction and forest management in forest ecosystems across Germany.

ABSTRACT: Soil microbial communities play an important role in forest ecosystem functioning, but how climate change will affect the community composition and consequently bacterial functions is poorly understood. We assessed the effects of reduced precipitation with the aim of simulating realistic future drought conditions for one growing season on the bacterial community and its relation to soil properties and forest management. We manipulated precipitation in beech and conifer forest plots managed at different levels of intensity in three different regions across Germany. The precipitation reduction decreased soil water content across the growing season by between 2 to 8% depending on plot and region. T-RFLP analysis and pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene were used to study the total soil bacteri

SUBMITTER: Felsmann K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4397059 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature