Influence of temperature and soil water content on bacterial, archaeal and denitrifying microbial communities in drained fen grassland soil microcosms.

In this study, microcosms were used to investigate the influence of temperature (4 and 28 degrees C) and water content (45% and 90% WHC) on microbial communities and activities in carbon-rich fen soil. Bacterial, archaeal and denitrifier community composition was assessed during incubation of microcosms for 12 weeks using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) profiling of 16S rRNA and nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ) genes. In addition, microbial and denitrifier abundance, potential denitrification activity and production of greenhouse gases were measured.