Microbial communities associated with porewater from a boreal peatland

The objective of this study was to test how organic matter quality influences microbial community composition in a boreal peatland in response to climate warming. We study the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) site where air and peat warming are combined in a whole ecosystem warming (WEW) treatment. Porewater for 16S rRNA gene sequencing was collected from piezometers inside the SPRUCE enclosures in June 2016 and filtered onto 0.2 um polycarbonate membrane filters within 1 hour of sampling. DNA was extracted from whole filters using the DNeasy PowerSoil extraction kit (Qiagen). Amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed using the universal primer pair 515F and 806R.