Active soil microbial communities from the Zero Curtain layer

When wet Arctic tundra soils begin to freeze in the fall, an unfrozen layer remains between the frozen surface and deeper permafrost layers. This period is known as the zero curtain, as liquid water keeps the temperature of this soil layer near 0 C while latent heat is gradually dissipated. This project investigates the microbes that are metabolically active in the unfrozen layer during the fall zero curtain period and compares this community to that which is active in the late summer at the same depth (10-20 cm).