Cultivation-dependent characterization of bacterial diversity from British Columbia forest soils subjected to disturbance

Abstract

Bacteria from forest surface organic matter and mineral soil horizons were cultivated using four methods and characterized by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis. Soil samples from a British Columbia Ministry of Forests Long-Term Soil Productivity (LTSP) installation were collected during winter and summer from two disturbance treatments (whole-tree harvesting with no soil compaction (plot N) and whole-tree harvesting plus complete surface organic matter removal with heavy soil compaction (plot S)) and from an unlogged reference plot (REF). Seventy-five percent of 1795 bacterial isolates were affiliated with 42 genera representing beta- and gamma-Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, the Bacillus/Clostridium group, and the Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides group. Approximately half of the culture collection represented genetic diversity confined to four bacterial genera: Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Paenibacillus, and Arthrobacter. A significantly higher proportion of bacterial isolates belonging to Actinobacteria, and the member genus Arthrobacter, were isolated from plot S soil samples compared with soil samples from plots N and REF. Twenty-five percent of bacterial isolates were not conclusively identified to genus with FAME analysis. Sherlock Tracker cluster analysis and partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis enabled classification of a subset of these isolates.