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Figure: The photo shows a sunlit beech forest with light green spring foliage.

The project ForNit investigates the influence of different forest management intensities on heterotrophic and autotrophic nitrification in order to identify key organisms participating in these processes in forest soils and to assess their abundance, diversity and activity. Besides the composition of organisms performing heterotrophic nitrification, we focus on spatial and temporal heterogeneity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), whose activity is demonstrated to be tightly linked to ammonia-oxidation in the context of nitrification. The interaction between heterotrophic ammonia-oxidizers as well as AOA and NOB will be investigated in the frame of this project. Another aim is to isolate major AOA ecotypes from forest soils under different land-use regimes and identify their characteristics.


Forest management influences the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing and nitrite-oxidizing organisms, thereby inducing shifts in nitrifier interactions.
Tree composition of forests influences the abundance and diversity of participating nitrifier groups to different extents.
The activity of ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizers is strongly influenced by local parameters.


Metagenomic mining of datasets to identify major groups of less studied nitrifiers.
Barcoding of different groups of nitrifiers (AOA, AOB, NOB, heterotrophic nitrifiers) to identify drivers for their abundance, diversity and activity.
In situ analysis of microbial structure to reveal interactions of nitrifying organisms by means of laser scanning microscopy.
Enrichment and cultivation of selected AOA ecotypes in order to determine their ecophysiological characteristics.


Doc
Der Einfluss unterschiedlicher Landnutzungsintensitäten auf pflanzenassoziierte bakterielle Gemeinschaften von Dactylis glomerata L.
Estendorfer J. (2023): The influence of different land use intensities on plant-associated bacterial communities of Dactylis glomerata L. Dissertation, TU München, Helmholtz Zentrum München
More information:  nbn-resolving.de
Doc
Estendorfer J., Stempfhuber B., Vestergaard G., Schulz S., Rillig M. C., Joshi J., Schröder P., Schloter M. (2020): Definition of Core Bacterial Taxa in Different Root Compartments of Dactylis glomerata, Grown in Soil under Different Levels of Land Use Intensity. Diversity 12 (10), 392. doi:10.3390/d12100392
More information:  doi.org
Doc
Stempfhuber B., Richter-Heitmann T., Bienek L., Schöning I., Schrumpf M., Friedrich M., Schulz S., Schloter M. (2017): Soil pH and plant diversity drive co-occurrence patterns of ammonia and nitrite oxidizer in soils from forest ecosystems. Biology and Fertility of Soils 53 (6), 691–700. doi: 10.1007/s00374-017-1215-z
More information:  doi.org
Doc
Estendorfer J., Stempfhuber B., Haury P., Vestergaard G., Rillig M. C., Joshi J., Schröder P. Schloter M. (2017): The Influence of Land Use Intensity on the Plant-Associated Microbiome of Dactylis glomerata L. Frontiers in Plant Science 8:930. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00930
More information:  doi.org

Scientific assistants

Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter
Project manager
Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter
Technische Universität München (TUM)
Dr. Stefanie Schulz
Project manager
Dr. Stefanie Schulz
Helmholtz Zentrum München
Dr. Barbara Stempfhuber
Alumni
Dr. Barbara Stempfhuber
Jennifer Estendorfer
Alumni
Jennifer Estendorfer
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