Urban stress is associated with variation in microbial species composition-but not richness-in Manhattan.. Manhattan Parks & Medians

We collected soil samples May 30-June 06, 2013 from medians (n=21) and parks (n=25) in Manhattan (NYC). The medians were located along Broadway (n=7) and the corridor along 12th Ave, 11th Ave, and West St. (n=14). At each site, we used an open end soil probe to collect 5 soil cores (2.5cm wide x 10cm deep) every 4 meters along a 20m transect. We immediately pooled the soil cores from each site by combining them in a sterile Whirlpak bag. Microbial DNA was isolated using Power Soil extraction kit and three DNA extractions were pooled for each sample prior to sequencing. Bacterial DNA was sequenced for all sites using the16S rRNA gene using the 515-F and 806-R primer pair (Fierer et al 2012). Fungal DNA was sequenced for 26 sites (13 parks and 13 medians) using the ITS1 region of rRNA was amplified using the ITS1-F and ITS2 primer pair (McGuire et al 2013).