Partitioning of Prokaryotic Functional Diversity under Different Land Use

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The aim of the project is to elucidate the coupling between major groups of soil bacteria (Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria), plant communities, edaphic factors, as well as land use in the Exploratories. Investigations will focus on (1) the dynamics of functional coupling between active rhizosphere bacteria and plants, (2) specific functions of individual bacteria in the degradation of plant exudates, plant litter, and animal remains, as well as (3) the time dependent stability of rhizosphere and bulk soil microbial communities in the Exploratories. The functional coupling of individual bacterial species in organic carbon flux will be elucidated through time resolved 13C-stable isotope pulse labeling of root exudates using Captured RNA Isotope Probing (CARIP), and correlating the composition of exsudates with that of bacterial communities determined by high throughput sequencing. Individual functional roles of bacteria will be tested by the uptake of 13C-labelled substrates with subsequent identification of active phylotypes by stable isotope probing of RNA (SIP), and by metagenomics and metatranscriptomics. Intra-annual variability of these bacterial communities in response to land use shall be studied. Finally, long-term effects will be assessed across all 300 experimental plots by Illumina sequence analysis of three sample sets spanning 6 years, which provides the opportunity to elucidate long-term changes in bacterial communities and relating them to changes in environmental variables and land use.