Elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2)
is anticipated to have marked effects on soil microbial populations. While
there is experimental evidence to support this view there are also studies
where changes in microbial populations, such as the abundance of bacteria, are
suggested but cannot be statistically established. We conducted this study to
identify whether the sampling and sample treatment methods used could influence
the results obtained using bacterial abundance as the variable of interest. We
tested three different sampling methods and two different DNA extraction kits.
The first because microbes are distributed heterogeneously in soil so the
sampling procedure might be expected to influence the accuracy and precision of
the population estimate and the second because the quantity and quality of DNA
extracted influences the microbial analyses that can be performed and can introduce
bias. Samples were taken from a long-running FACE experiment on grassland from
under plants of Agrostis capillaris.
We found that bacterial abundance was consistently lower under eCO2 but we were only able to establish a statistical difference where a more
intense sampling regime was used and bulking of the soil sample was avoided. A
reduction in bacterial abundance is a consistent outcome in eCO2 field experiments but the only other occasion where this reduction has been
found to be significant was also where individual soil cores were analysed
rather than the samples being bulked. We conclude that while there is extra
work and cost attached to more detailed sampling this approach is highly
desirable if we are to make robust conclusions about the impacts of eCO2 on soil microbes.
Cite this paper
Li, F. , Bowatte, S. , Newton, P. C. D. and Luo, D. (2017). Impact of Different Methods of Soil Sampling and DNA Extraction on the Identification of Soil Bacterial Abundance under Elevated CO2. Open Access Library Journal, 4, e3527. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103527.
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