Diversity of total, nitrogen‐fixing and denitrifying bacteria in an acid forest soil

Summary To assess the diversity of total, denitrifying and N 2 ‐fixing bacteria in a nitrogen (N)‐limited, acid forest soil, isolated DNA was analysed for the genes 16S rRNA, nosZ and nifH . Sequence information for these genes was obtained from clone libraries and from our TReFID computer program, which employs terminal restriction patterns for bacteria using multiple restriction enzymes. Both approaches indicated that Proteobacteria (α‐ and γ‐groups) and Acidobacteria dominated. A comprehensive list of bacteria retrieved from this soil is provided and compared with literature data on the bacterial community compositions from other sites. The study indicated that the current PCR conditions with the primers employed allowed retrieval of only a portion of the bacteria occurring in soils. Massive treatment of a soil plot with NH 4 NO 3 caused an increase in the N content, which was rapidly followed by an enhancement of carbon (C) content. Thus the C/N ratio stayed below 16.0 and the soil remained N‐limited. This may explain why the bacterial diversity did not undergo drastic shifts as was tentatively inferred from the available data sets.