Investigating the consequences of short- and long-term soil storage on soil microbial community composition

Evidence from two experiments investigating how microbial community composition differs between soil samples collected at the same time and stored under different conditions. In a short-term experiment, we measured the effects of three months of refrigeration at 4o C versus three months of freezing at -80o C, and in a long-term experiment, we measured the effects of up to 8 years of air-drying at room temperature versus freezing at -80o C.