Table 1. Description of analyzed soils, including sampling period, and assignment to conducted analyses.
| Soil | Soil typea | Location | Vegetationb (land use intensity)c | pHd | NO3−/NH4+ (μg gTG−1) | Samplede | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FG | Cambisol | N50°08′ E11°52′ | Grassland (ni) | 6.0 | — | 2010 | MeOH dis |
| OG | Histosol | N49°57′37′′ E11°35′42′′ | Grassland (ni) | 7.0 | — | 2010 | MeOH dis |
| AEG 2 | Leptosol | N48° 22′ 36.686′′ E9° 28′ 22.023′′ | Grassland (i) | 6.9 | 2.8/23.8 | Pyro Isol MPN | |
| AEG 7 | Leptosol | N48° 23′ 29.116′′ E9° 22′ 36.65′′ | Grassland (ni) | 7.6 | 1.8/23.2 | Pyro MPN | |
| AEW 5 | Cambisol | N48° 25′ 10.626′′ E9° 24′ 52.854′′ | Forest (i) | 5.6 | 1.3/24.7 | Pyro MPN | |
| AEW 8 | Cambisol | N48° 22′ 57.322′′ E9° 22′ 56.584′′ | Forest (ni) | 6.4 | 2.2/25.0 | Pyrof Isol MPN | |
| HEG 6 | Stagnosol | N51° 12′ 53.766′′ E10° 23′ 28.395′′ | Grassland (i) | 6.5 | 0.4/20.2 | MeOH dis Pyro TRFLP Isol MPN | |
| HEG 9 | Stagnosol | N51° 13′ 26.031′′ E10° 22′ 50.834′′ | Grassland (ni) | 7.0 | 0.3/19.7 | 2008 2009 | Pyro Isol MPN |
| HEW 5 | Luvisol | N51° 15′ 49.961′′ E10° 14′ 27.448′′ | Forest (i) | 5.4 | 1.0/25.0 | Pyro Isol MPN | |
| HEW 12 | Luvisol | N51° 6′ 2.477′′ E 10° 27' 18.659” | Forest (ni) | 4.8 | 0.6/20.9 | Pyro Isol MPN | |
| SEG 2 | Histosol | N53° 5′ 21.505′′ E13° 58′ 48.169′′ | Grassland (i) | 7.5 | 1.6/24.9 | Pyro | |
| SEG 6 | Histosol | N53° 6′ 12.583′′ E13° 37′ 22.2′′ | Grassland (ni) | 5.8 | 1.6/23.7 | Pyro MPN | |
| SEW 5 | Cambisol | N53° 3′ 25.321′′ E 13° 53′ 7.318′′ | Forest (i) | 4.0 | 0.6/16.4 | Pyrog,f,h Isol MPN | |
| SEW 9 | Cambisol | N53° 2′ 40.513′′ E13° 48′ 36.371′′ | Forest (ni) | 4.5 | 0.4/15.2 | Pyrog Isol MPN |
Abbreviations: Isol, isolation of pure cultures; MeOH dis, determination of methanol dissimilation based on the amount of 14CO2 produced from 14C-methanol; MPN, most probable numbers of methanol-utilizing methylotrophs (details in Supplementary Information ‘Methods'); Pyro, pyrosequencing of genes mxaF, fae and mch; TRFLP, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with mch.
Data were taken from Fischer et al., 2010.
Grassland, temperate grassland with various grasses and weeds; Forest, mixed hardwood forests that were dominated by beech (Fagus sylvatica L.).
i, intense land use (i.e., grasslands were regularly fertilized and forests were regularly harvested); ni, non-intense land use (i.e., grasslands no fertilized and forests were not subjected to land use since at least 60 years).
pH in water; mean values from three independent measurements.
Detailed sampling scheme is given in Supplementary Table S1.
In these soils amplification of mch was not successful.
In these soils amplification of mxaF was not successful.
In these soils amplification of fae was not successful.