Archaeal communities in a glacier foreland of arid and semi-arid central Asia

Soils of glacier surface moraine (SM), 0.3, 0.5, 13, 30, 60, 80, 120, 140 and 165 m from the glacier terminus were collected, representing the successional ages of 0, 0, 0, 4, 8, 17, 22, 34, 40 and 50 years, respectively. Alpine meadow soils 3000 m away from the glacier terminus was selected as a reference soil (Ref). lllumina Miseq sequencing analysis was employed to characterize the relative abundance, diversity, and community composition of the archaeal 16S rRNA gene in the soil samples.