Abstract

Many soil functions are driven by soil microorganisms and they have therefore been identified as appropriate indicators for monitoring of soil status. Genetic profiling of the bacterial ammonia oxidizing community was recently top-scored as soil biological indicator (Ritz et al., 2009). However, ammonia oxidation is not only performed by bacteria, but also ammonia oxidizing archaea. Based on the suggested niche differentiation between these two groups and findings that they are susceptible to environmental change in soil ecosystems at varying scales, we suggest that the abundance of these two communities rather than community profiling of the ammonia oxidizing bacteria could serve as a relevant and cost-effective bioindicator for soil monitoring. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Ammonia oxidation; AOB; AOA; Bioindicator; Biological soil status; Quantitative PCR

Published in

Ecological Indicators
2011, Volume: 11, number: 6, pages: 1696-1698
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Wessén, Ella

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hallin, Sara

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.04.018

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/58109