Forest-to-pasture conversion increases the diversity of the phylum Verrucomicrobia in Amazon rainforest soils.

ABSTRACT: The Amazon rainforest is well known for its rich plant and animal diversity, but its bacterial diversity is virtually unexplored. Due to ongoing and widespread deforestation followed by conversion to agriculture, there is an urgent need to quantify the soil biological diversity within this tropical ecosystem. Given the abundance of the phylum Verrucomicrobia in soils, we targeted this group to examine its response to forest-to-pasture conversion. Both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversities were higher for pasture in comparison to primary and secondary forests. The community composition of Verrucomicrobia in pasture soils was significantly different from those of forests, with a 11.6% increase in the number of sequences belonging to subphylum 3 and a proportional decrease in sequences belon

SUBMITTER: Ranjan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4519759 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature