Fungal, Bacterial and Plant Diversity on Contaminated Sites in Southern California and their Soil Physico-Chemical Drivers

This study surveyed seven contaminated brownfields and Superfund sites in Southern California to identify locally adapted fungi, bacteria and plants tolerant of mixed organic and metal contamination under arid and semi-arid conditions. Ten soil samples were collected per site, five from the interspace and five from the rhizosphere soils beneath plants, and 16S and ITS2 rRNA regions were sequenced. Additionally, redundancy analyses were carried out to determine soil and environmental drivers for microbial communities.