The relationship of evergreen shrub Empetrum nigrum and soil microbial communities and functional diversity in degraded rangeland of the subarctic highland of Iceland.

Empetrum nigrum is a common species in the degraded highland rangelands of Iceland. Empetrum nigrum is well known for its ability to produce secondary metabolites (allelochemicals) that influence the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other plants in the community. The aim is to determine if the presence of Empetrum has an effect on soil microbial community composition and the community's main functional genes with special emphasis on genes related to carbon cycles. 4 shotgun libraries were constructed representing two soil samples from Empetrum nigrum shrub and two soil samples from vegetation cover of grasses/moss and, depths of 0-5.