Abundance and Diversity of Bacterial, Archaeal, and Fungal Communities Along an Altitudinal Gradient in Alpine Forest Soils: What Are the Driving Factors?

ABSTRACT: Shifts in soil microbial communities over altitudinal gradients and the driving factors are poorly studied. Their elucidation is indispensable to gain a comprehensive understanding of the response of ecosystems to global climate change. Here, we investigated soil archaeal, bacterial, and fungal communities at four Alpine forest sites representing a climosequence, over an altitudinal gradient from 545 to 2000 m above sea level (asl), regarding abundance and diversity by using qPCR and Illumina sequencing, respectively. Archaeal community was dominated by Thaumarchaeota, and no significant shifts were detected in abundance or community composition with altitude. The relative bacterial abundance increased at higher altitudes, which was related to increasing levels of soil organic matter and n

SUBMITTER: Siles JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4902835 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature