Alaskan Tundra Soil Laboratory Thaw 16S rRNA Amplicons and Metagenomes

In this experiment, we simulated thaw along the depth profile of an Fe-rich organic tundra soil using frozen soil samples from the active-layer, transition-zone, and permafrost depths that were gradually thawed to 4C and incubated under reducing conditions for an extended duration of 30 days. We determined the extent of initial differences in microbiome composition between each soil layer along the soil profile and identified the dominant microbial taxa and their metabolic pathways of OC degradation during short-term (7-day) and extended (30-day) thaw duration by measuring relative and absolute changes in microbiome composition (16S rRNA amplicons) and functional gene (metagenome) abundance during the incubation experiment.