Dissolved organic carbon dynamics and its relation to microbial community succession during ecosystem development following deglaciation

Abstract

Understanding of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics is important to ecological succession, because the change in the quality and quantity of soil carbon is closely related to the microbial species turnover. Many studies have been conducted separately on SOC dynamics and microbial community thus, we investigated the linkage between SOC dynamics, particularly DOC more readily available to microbes, and microbial community composition together during succession process on glacier foreland in high Arctic. In this study, we applied high-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) to investigate the molecular characteristics of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and their dynamics along the deglaciation. Soil samples were collected in the foreland of the Midtre Lovenbreen glacier (78.8˚N, 12.0˚E) in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway. As a results so far, the diversity of DOC molecules shows unique pattern, especially in Proteins-, Lipids- and Lignins-, following deglaciation. Changes in DOC chemical composition is related more strongly with RNA-based community dynamics of bacteria and protist than fungi and archaea. It will be discussed which factor, such as microbial taxa and abiotic factor, drives this unique pattern of DOC molecules with further analysis.