Soil microbial communities drive CO2 and CH4 fluxes along a sub-alpine Australian ecosystem gradient. soil metagenome

Soil and vegetation gradients provide a unique opportunity to explore the mechanisms of soil GHG fluxes. We used a bog-grassland-forest gradient located within a sub-alpine region of southern New South Wales, Australia to look at variation in soil methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes. This ecosystem gradient is of particular interest because it ranges from extraordinarily high CH4 consumption rates in the forested upland soils, and high production rates in the bog soils just down slope. Our objective was to determine the role the soil microbial community, chemical, and physical properties in regulating CH4 and CO2 fluxes along this ecosystem gradient, and examine how these soil properties vary at depth in controlling ecosystem-level fluxes.