The physicochemical and biological gradients of soil and vegetative succession along the F ranz J osef chronosequence in N ew Z ealand were used to test whether bacterial communities show patterns of change associated with long‐term ecosystem development. Pyrosequencing was conducted on soil‐derived 16S rRNA genes at nine stages of ecosystem progression and retrogression, ranging in age from 60 to c . 120 000 years since glaci...

Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N 2 O) have continued to rise since the advent of the industrial era, largely because of the increase in agricultural land use. The urine deposited by grazing ruminant animals is a major global source of agricultural N 2 O. With the first commitment period for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol now underway, mitigation options for ruminant...

We studied soil organic carbon (C) chemistry at the mountain birch forest‐tundra ecotone in three regions of the Fennoscandian mountain range with comparable vegetation cover but contrasting degrees of continentality and latitude. The aim of the study was to identify functional compound classes and their relationships to decomposition and spatial variation across the ecotone and latitudinal gradient. Solid‐state 13 C nuclear m...