Ammonia oxidizing community composition of mixed beech forest soils and seepage-mediated translocation in the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory

We studied the bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidizing community structure in mixed beech forest soils and the vertically mobilized fraction in seepage in the Hainich region (Thuringia/Germany). Seepage was collected from lysimeter at different depths (litter layer, 0 to 4 cm, 0 to 16 cm, and 0 to 30 cm). Corresponding soil samples at 5 cm and 10 cm depth nearby the lysimeters locations were included. Sequencing of samples was performed four times in 2018 (February, May, July, and November). Community composition was determined by amplicon sequencing using Illumina MiSeq, with the primer combinations amoA-1F/amoA-2R for the bacterial amoA gene and Arch-amoA-104F/Arch-amoA-616R_mod for the archaeal amoA gene.