Long-term PFAS exposure causes selective changes in the bacterial community of soil

This study investigates the effect of short- and long-term PFAS exposure on soil bacterial communities in greenhouse and environmental soils. Greenhouse soils (n=31) were spiked with 16 PFAS (100 ug/kg dw each) and sampled at multiple time points, including Day 0, 3 months, and 6 months, with and without willow and poplar transplantation and microbial amendment. Environmental soils (n=10) were collected from a PFAS-contaminated firefighting training site with over 30 years of contamination history and a nearby reference site. DNA was extracted using the ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep Kit, and the bacterial 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 hypervariable region (445 bp) was amplified using primers 341F/805R. Amplicon sequencing was performed on an Illumina MiSeq platform to generate 300 bp paired-end reads. These data provide insights into PFAS-induced microbial shifts and their potential implications for soil ecosystem functions and phytoremediation strategies.