Assessment of structure and function of soil bacterial communties along land use and mangement gradients in the Biodiversity Exploratories

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Bacteria are the most abundant and diverse group of microorganisms in soil. Bacteria are important for most nutrient transformations in soil and major drivers for biogeochemical cycles. The composition and function of soil bacterial communities along different land use types and management types will be analyzed in the framework of the three Biodiversity Exploratories. To identify changes in indigenous gene- and taxon-specific patterns and key metabolic functions accompanying different management types phylogenetic and functional profiling of soil bacterial communities are performed by using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches. The changes in species richness, abundance, and distribution of phylogenetic groups and key functions are assessed and compared by bar-coded amplicon pyrosequenicng of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and pyrosequencing of mRNA (cDNA). To provide robust assessments of variability of soil bacterial community structures and the impact of management type comparison of large-effects and small-scale effects will be carried out by analysis of all 300 experimental plots and one individual plot, respectively. All data are correlated with soil attributes and management types. Another focus is to investigate the impact of tree species type on soil bacterial diversity, community structure, and function in selected pure forest stands (beech, oak, spruce) over time. In addition, the distribution of key functions will be monitored across all experimental plots by PCR-based approaches. The focus will be on genes involved in biogeochemical cycles (C and N).