Soil aggregate microbial communities from 7-year tillage experiment

These reads were generated to examine microbial life history strategies and the relationship between microbial function, community composition, and the soil physical environment in soil aggregates under different tillage management strategies. We isolated aggregates of four different sizes via a modified optimal moisture sieving method, from soils in a seven-year tillage experiment. We measured three metrics of microbial physiology important for soil health and often used to define life history strategy: direct uptake of simple carbon resources using multiple substrate induced respiration, potential enzyme activity, and carbon use efficiency. These reads were used for predictive metagenomics via PiCRUST to infer community stress tolerance within aggregates using KEGG associated functions.