Microbial succession on decomposing root litter in a drought-prone Scots pine forest.

ABSTRACT: Decomposition is a major flux of the carbon cycle in forest soils and understanding the involved processes is a key for budgeting carbon turnover. Decomposition is constrained by the presence of biological agents such as microorganisms and the underlying environmental conditions such as water availability. A metabarcoding approach of ribosomal markers was chosen to study the succession of bacterial and fungal decomposers on root litter. Litterbags containing pine roots were buried in a pine forest for two years and sequentially sampled. Decomposition and the associated communities were surveyed under ambient dry and long-term irrigation conditions. Early decomposition stages were characterized by the presence of fast-cycling microorganisms such as Bacteroidetes and Helotiales, which were t

SUBMITTER: Herzog C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6776048 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature