This research project aimed to understand how snow accumulation and snowmelt influences the mobilization of nitrogen through the soil microbiome in a mountainous catchment at the East River Watershed in Colorado. This project sought to identify bacteria, archaea, and fungi that were associated with the microbial biomass bloom that occurs during winter and the biomass crash following snowmelt. This project also sought to understand whether the traits that govern microbial community assembly during and after snowmelt were phylogenetically conserved. Samples were collected during winter, the snowmelt period, and after snowmelt in spring, from an area that transitioned from an upland hillslope to a riparian floodplain. This project is part of the Watershed Function Science Focus Area.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 (LBNL) for the Watershed Function Science Focus Area.