Table 1. Soil sample description and NH3 oxidizer abundance.
| Sample | Location | Ecosystem type |
amoA copies
a,b |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archaea | Bacteria | |||
| Hot-st | Hotelneset (Svalbard) | Shrub tundra (mineral soil) | 8 × 106±1 × 106 | ND |
| Adv-tt | Adventalen (Svalbard) | Tussock tundra (mineral soil) | 4 × 107±2 × 106 | ND |
| Lon-mt1 | Longyearbyen (Svalbard) | Moss tundra (mineral soil in wet ridge) | 3 × 106±1 × 106 | ND |
| Lon-mt2 | Moss tundra (mineral soil in dry mount) | 5 × 107±8 × 106 | 5 × 105±1 × 105 | |
| Lon-mt3 | 2 × 108±2 × 107 | 5 × 105±7 × 104 | ||
| Sol-tf | Solvatnet (Svalbard) | Tundra fen peat (organic soil) | ND | 2 × 106±3 × 105 |
| Sol-fb | Frost boil in tundra fen (mineral soil) | 2 × 107±8 × 106 | 2 × 106±2 × 105 | |
| Knu-tf | Knudsenheia (Svalbard) | Tundra fen peat (organic soil) | <4 × 105c | 2 × 106±1 × 105 |
| Knu-fb | Frost boil in tundra fen (mineral soil) | 2 × 106±3 × 105 | 4 × 105±6 × 104 | |
| Taz-sto | Tazovskiy (Western Siberia) | Shrub tundra (cryoturbated organic soil) | 1 × 107±3 × 106 | ND |
| Zac-st | Zackenberg (Greenland) | Shrub tundra (mineral soil) | 4 × 107±3 × 105d | ND |
Abbreviations: dw, dry weight; fw, fresh weight; ND, not detected.
a
Values given as per g dw soil.
b
Values expressed as arithmetic mean±s.d. from triplicate reactions.
c
Below estimated quantification limit in the highest amount of template tested but detected with the end point PCR assay.
d
Value given as per g fw soil, as moisture content was not determined for the sample.