Fungal ITS, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal 18S, and bacterial 16S  amplicon sequencing from soil, and mineral-associated microhabitats in a field experiment, June 26 '26
This project examines fungal, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF), and bacterial communities in a soybean field experiment designed to test how mineral surface properties influence microbial colonization and soil carbon cycling. Mesh pouches containing quartz sand, kaolinite, montmorillonite, or goethite were buried in field plots and recovered at the end of the growing season, together with surrounding soil samples. The pouches allowed hyphal and microbial colonization, enabling comparison of microbial communities associated with contrasting mineral substrates and adjacent bulk soil. Amplicon sequencing was used to characterize broad fungal communities with ITS primers (gITS7/ITS4), AMF communities with WANDA/AML2 primers targeting the 18S rRNA gene, and bacterial communities with 515F/806R primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene.