Metagenomic analysis revealed the microbial-mediated soil organic carbon loss under the degeneration succession in alpine meadow

Land cover change has long been recognized that marked effect the amount of soil organic carbon. However, little is known about microbial-mediated effect processes and mechanism on soil organic carbon. In this study, the soil samples in a degenerated succession from alpine meadow to alpine steppe meadow in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau degenerated, were analyzed by using GeoChip functional gene arrays. soil microbial functional gene diversity; 20 samples were collected from alpine meadow and alpine-steppe meadow in Qinghai-Tibetan, China, with 10 replicates in every site