METATRANSCRIPTOMICS OF SOIL UNDER SNOW MANIPULATION EXPERIMENT

In a grassland at 1600 m of altitude in the Central Alps, we established a fully factorial snow manipulation experiment mimicking the most detrimental effects of climate warming on soil and vegetation: i) earlier removal of the snow cover in autumn ii) compaction of the snow, thus creating ice layers and anoxic conditions in late winter, and unmanaged control plots. Soil samples for RNA extraction were collected during snowmelt and later in the season. Messenger RNAs will characterize bacterial and fungal functional profiles and metabolic pathways active before, during and after thaw and how the altered experimental conditions affect these dynamics. Ribosomal RNA and mRNA profiling will link diversity and gene expression, actors and functions, shifts in functional profiles and identify possible impaired functions.