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Changes in bacterial and archaeal community assemblages along an ombrotrophic peat bog profile

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Abstract

Peatlands are archives of extreme importance for the assessment of past ecological, environmental and climatic changes. The importance as natural archives is even greater in the case of ombrotrophic peat bogs, where the only inputs are atmospheric in origin. Here we integrated previously published physical and chemical results regarding the solid and liquid phase of peat with a biomolecular microbiological approach to assess the relationships between chemistry and microbial biodiversity along a Swiss bog profile corresponding to approximately 2,000 years of peat formation. The structure of bacterial and archaeal communities was assessed through a polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) approach followed by sequencing of PCR-DGGE bands of interest. Both chemical and microbiological data showed a differentiation of properties along the peat profile, with three major zones identified. Both bacterial and archaeal profiles clustered according to the depth (i.e., age) of samples. Among bacteria, Acidobacteria were recovered primarily in the first layers of the profile, whereas methanogenic archaea were more commonly recovered in the deepest part of the core, corresponding to the occurring anoxic conditions. Finally, a number of sequences had low homologies with known species, especially in bacteria: this points to an almost unknown microbial community adapted to the extreme conditions of peat bogs, which are acidic, rich in dissolved organic C, and predominantly anoxic.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted within the PRIN 2009 project “Chemical and biomolecular indicators for reconstructing environmental changes in natural archives” (2009NBHPWR), financed by MIUR (Italian Ministry for University and Research). The authors are grateful to Maria Giulia Parisi for her support in the molecular analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy

    Edoardo Puglisi, Fabrizio Cappa & Pier Sandro Cocconcelli

  2. Department of the Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71122, Foggia, Italy

    Claudio Zaccone

  3. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 348E South Academic Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H1

    Claudio Zaccone & William Shotyk

  4. Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy

    Marco Trevisan

  5. Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Teodoro M. Miano

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  1. Edoardo Puglisi
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  2. Claudio Zaccone
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  3. Fabrizio Cappa
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  4. Pier Sandro Cocconcelli
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  5. William Shotyk
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  6. Marco Trevisan
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  7. Teodoro M. Miano
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Correspondence to Marco Trevisan.

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Puglisi, E., Zaccone, C., Cappa, F. et al. Changes in bacterial and archaeal community assemblages along an ombrotrophic peat bog profile. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 815–826 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-014-0902-2

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