title: Bacterial community structure and soil properties of a subarctic tundra soil in Council, Alaska.
abstract: The subarctic region is highly responsive and vulnerable to climate change. Understanding the structure of subarctic soil microbial communities is essential for predicting the response of the subarctic soil environment to climate change. To determine the composition of the bacterial community and its relationship with soil properties, we investigated the bacterial community structure and properties of surface soil from the moist acidic tussock tundra in Council, Alaska. We collected 70 soil samples with 25-m intervals between sampling points from 0-10 cm to 10-20 cm depths. The bacterial community was analyzed by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes, and the following soil properties were analyzed: soil moisture content (MC), pH, total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and inorganic nitrogen (NH4+ and NO3-). The community compositions of the two different depths showed that Alphaproteobacteria decreased with soil depth. Among the soil properties measured, soil pH was the most significant factor correlating with bacterial community in both upper and lower-layer soils. Bacterial community similarity based on jackknifed unweighted unifrac distance showed greater similarity across horizontal layers than through the vertical depth. This study showed that soil depth and pH were the most important soil properties determining bacterial community structure of the subarctic tundra soil in Council, Alaska.
authors.affiliation: Korea Polar Research Institute, KIOST, Incheon, Korea; School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hye Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yergeau
authors.forename: Chung Yeon
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hinzman
authors.forename: Sungjin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Soon Gyu
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Ok-Sun
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jongsik
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Yoo Kyung
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D000413:Alaska; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058889:Molecular Typing; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D010802:Phylogeny; D020560:Proteobacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Alaska; pH; pyrosequencing; soil bacteria; soil depth; tussock tundra