Temporal variability in soil bacterial community during a N2O peak emission

Among the main greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O) causes a serious environmental problem because of its global warming potential (GWP) which is 298 times higher than CO2 and because of its lifetime of 114 years. Agricultural soils are the main source of N2O emissions and account for more than 50% of total global anthropogenic emissions and will increase in the decades. The main part of these N2O emissions occurs as short-duration peaks superimposed on low background fluxes. Even if those peak events are sporadic (represent about 10% of the time) they can account for about 50% of the total N2O annual emissions. It is well know that bacteria play an essential role in N2O emissions but their dynamic is less known. The objective of the current work was to evaluate at a molecular level the dynamic of active bacterial community during a N2O peak emission at a fine temporal scale. To perform this study, RNA was extracted from core soil samples collected from an agricultural field (Belgium) before, during and after a rainfall. RNA was reverse transcribed and use as a template.