16S rRNA Profiling of ROS-Stimulated Microbial Communities in Chilean Volcanic Soils

This project aims to characterize how soil bacterial communities in temperate volcanic forest soils respond to controlled pulses of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Microcosms were established with Andisol and Inceptisol soils from native forests in southern Chile and exposed to ROS stimulation or control conditions. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing (Oxford Nanopore) was used to assess taxonomic shifts and predicted functional potentials at early and late incubation stages. The overarching goal is to evaluate whether microbially sustained ROS are associated with changes in community structure and oxidative metabolic traits relevant to manganese cycling and soil organic matter turnover.