Studies of biodiversity-ecosystem function in treed ecosystems have generally focused on aboveground functions. This study investigates intertrophic links between tree diversity and soil microbial community function and composition. We examined how microbial communities in surface mineral soil responded to experimental gradients of tree species richness (SR), functional diversity (FD), communit...

Thiocyanate (SCN- ) is a toxic compound that forms when cyanide (CN- ), used to recover gold, reacts with sulfur species. SCN- -degrading microbial communities have been studied, using bioreactors fed synthetic wastewater. The inclusion of suspended solids in the form of mineral tailings, during the development of the acclimatized microbial consortium, led to the selection of an active plankton...

Steger, K. 2006. Composition of Microbial Communities in Composts A Tool to Assess Process Development and Quality of the Final Product. Doctoral dissertation. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 91-576-7080-3 The potential of microbial community fingerprinting methods to provide information about compost maturity in composting facilities was investigated. Studies in a pilot-scale reactor equipped with indepe...

Microbial decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) in thawing Arctic permafrost is important in determining greenhouse gas feedbacks of tundra ecosystems to climate. However, the changes in microbial community structure during SOC decomposition are poorly known. Here we examine these changes using frozen soils from Barrow, Alaska, USA, in anoxic microcosm incubation at -2 and 8°C for 122 days...

Nutrient availability and ratios can play an important role in shaping microbial communities of freshwater ecosystems. The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) in Mexico is a desert oasis where, perhaps paradoxically, high microbial diversity coincides with extreme oligotrophy. To better understand the effects of nutrients on microbial communities in CCB, a mesocosm experiment was implemented in a stoic...

BACKGROUND Biological WWTPs must be functionally stable to continuously and steadily remove contaminants which rely upon the activity of complex microbial communities. However, knowledge is still lacking in regard to microbial community functional structures and their linkages to environmental variables. AIMS To investigate microbial community functional structures of activated sludge in wast...

Rainfall in Mediterranean climates may affect soil microbial processes and communities differently in agricultural vs. grassland soils. We explored the hypothesis that land use intensification decreases the resistance of microbial community composition and activity to perturbation. Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics and microbial responses to a simulated Spring rainfall were measured in ...

Soils and vegetation were analyzed in 20 lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forest stands, varying in age from 50 to 350 years, that had initiated following stand-replacing fire. Our goal was to determine how nitrogen availability (NH4 –N) and microbial community composition varied with stand age-class and to determine whether differences could be explained by canopy, soil, or understory character...

In this study, we report experimental evidence of the thioautotrophic activity of the epibiotic microbial community associated with the setae of Shinkaia crosnieri, a galatheid crab that is endemic to deep-sea hydrothermal systems in the Okinawa Trough in Japan. Microbial consumption of reduced sulfur compounds under in situ hydrostatic and atmospheric pressure provided evidence of sulfur-oxidi...

The origin of the microbial community in a coastal marine sediment was investigated by examining the physical, chemical, and microbial characteristics of the sedimenting particles in Halifax Harbor, Canada. Particles were collected using particle interceptor traps placed on the sediment surface. The measured rate of particle accumulation compared to the sediment accumulation rate indicates that...