Seasonal dynamics of bacterial communities in soils underneath Panicum virgatum in a Mississippi common garden experiment

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a conservation agriculture crop with broad geographical distribution and high potential yields on marginal agricultural lands. We sampled bacteria in soils under four switchgrass cultivars planted at low and high densities in southeastern Mississippi and MiSeq-analyzed bacterial metabarcode (hyperveriable V4 region of the 16S ribosomal rna gene) markers to evaluate bacterial community seasonal dynamics as well as to analyze community responses to switchgrass cultivars and planting densities. These data contribute towards a better understanding of interactions among plants and their associated microbiomes as well as their seasonal dynamics.