Alaskan Tundra Soil 16S rRNA Profiles

In this study, the vertical soil profile of two distinct tundra vegetation types were sampled in 10-cm increments down to 1 m depth at three sites located across the North Slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska, USA. The composition of the soil microbiome was determined for each 10-cm increment along each soil profile based on 16S rRNA gene amplicons resolved into amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) derived from high-throughput DNA sequencing analysis of bacteria and archaea. The purpose was to determine how the soil microbiome differs regionally between sites located on distinct landscape ages and between distinct tundra vegetation as well as how the active layer and permafrost microbiomes differ from each other between sites and tundra vegetation.