Nachusa Tallgrass Prairie Soil Bacteria

Knowledge of how habitat restoration shapes soil microbial communities often is limited despite their critical roles in ecosystem function. Soil community diversity and composition change after restoration, but the trajectory of these successional changes may be influenced by disturbances imposed for habitat management. We studied soil bacterial communities in a restored tallgrass prairie chronosequence over six years to document how diversity and composition changed with age, management through fire and grazing by re-introduced bison, and in comparison to pre-restoration agricultural fields and remnant prairies.