Geothermal soil crust Targeted Locus (Loci). soil metagenome

Diatomaceous samples from a geothermal biological soil crust. Alkaline siliceous geothermal biological soil crust samples from across 1ha and subdivided by photic/depth. Soil cores were collected across a 1ha geothermal biological crusted soil system with the goals of describing a novel microbial environment, and investigating spatial heterogeneity in soil microbial systems. Soil cores were further separated into photic/depth levels, and replicated. 18S universal primers were used for amplifications, and individual samples were pyrosequenced (454-Ti).