Soil methanotrophic communities after simulated climate change along an elevation gradient

We investigated the possible impact of climate change on methanotrophic community structure by transplanting high-elevation soils to a warmer, lower-elevation site. Three years of simulated climate change was previously shown to decrease potential methanotrophic activity in the high-elevation soil, suggesting that the community converged with the low-elevation soil which also had lower potential activity. Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis of methane monooxygenase (pmoA) indicated that the high-elevation methanotrophic community was sensitive to climate change, with shifts in the relative abundance of specific terminal restriction fragments. However, the transplanted high-elevation community remained distinct from the low-elevation community that experienced a similar climate. Our results suggest that climatic warming can restructure soil methanotrophic communities by modifying the relative abundance of dominant species, but convergence with lower-elevation communities requires more than a few years.