TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rodriguez, Victoria
A1  - Moskwa, Lisa-Marie
A1  - Oses, Romulo
A1  - Kühn, Peter
A1  - Riveras-Muñoz, Nicolás
A1  - Seguel, Oscar
A1  - Scholten, Thomas
A1  - Wagner, Dirk
T1  - Impact of climate and slope aspects on the composition of soil bacterial communities involved in pedogenetic processes along the chilean coastal cordillera
JF  - Microorganisms
N2  - Soil bacteria play a fundamental role in pedogenesis. However, knowledge about both the impact of climate and slope aspects on microbial communities and the consequences of these items in pedogenesis is lacking. Therefore, soil-bacterial communities from four sites and two different aspects along the climate gradient of the Chilean Coastal Cordillera were investigated. Using a combination of microbiological and physicochemical methods, soils that developed in arid, semi-arid, mediterranean, and humid climates were analyzed. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia, and Planctomycetes were found to increase in abundance from arid to humid climates, while Actinobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes decreased along the transect. Bacterial-community structure varied with climate and aspect and was influenced by pH, bulk density, plant-available phosphorus, clay, and total organic-matter content. Higher bacterial specialization was found in arid and humid climates and on the south-facing slope and was likely promoted by stable microclimatic conditions. The presence of specialists was associated with ecosystem-functional traits, which shifted from pioneers that accumulated organic matter in arid climates to organic decomposers in humid climates. These findings provide new perspectives on how climate and slope aspects influence the composition and functional capabilities of bacteria, with most of these capabilities being involved in pedogenetic processes.
KW  - bacterial-community structure
KW  - bacterial diversity
KW  - climate gradient
KW  - slope aspect
KW  - Chilean Coastal Cordillera
KW  - soil formation
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10050847
SN  - 2076-2607
VL  - 10
IS  - 5
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -