Table 1.

Primers used in this study.

Target gene	Primers	Sequence (5′–3′)	Reference
16s rRNA	341F	CCT ACG GGA GGC AGC AG	Muyzer et al. (1993)
	534R	ATT ACC GCG GCT GCT GG
βAOB amoA	amoA-1F	GGG GTT TCT ACT GGT GGT	Rotthauwe et al. (1997)
	amoA-2R′	CCT CKG SAA AGC CTT CTT C	Okano et al. (2004)
Archaea amoA	Arch -amoAF	STAATGGTCTGGCTTAGACG	Francis et al. (2005)
	Arch - amoAR	GCGGCCATCCATCTGTATGT	Francis et al. (2005)
qPCR-AOA	AOAF	CCTACCACAAGCATAGT	This study
	AOAR	GTTAACAGCACCTTACTTACT	This study
qPCR-AOB	AOBF	GTCTCCATGCTCATGTTC	This study
	AOBR	GGACCTTTGACGTAGAAGAA	This study