Mark P. Waldrop

TL;DR: A global-scale meta-analysis of the seven-most widely measured soil enzyme activities is conducted, indicating that the enzymatic potential for hydrolyzing the labile components of soil organic matter is tied to substrate availability, soil pH and the stoichiometry of microbial nutrient demand.

TL;DR: Enzyme activities and specific activities may provide a useful linkage between microbial community composition and carbon processing, and values for enzyme specific activities were more highly correlated with community composition than were total enzyme activities.

TL;DR: Deep metagenomic sequencing is used to determine the impact of thaw on microbial phylogenetic and functional genes, and relate these data to measurements of methane emissions, and construct the first draft genome from a complex soil metagenome, which corresponds to a novel methanogen.

TL;DR: In this article, the vulnerability of the North American high-latitude soil organic carbon (SOC) pool to climate change has been discussed, where the authors divide the current northern highlatitude organic carbon pools into near-surface soils where SOC is affected by seasonal freeze-thaw processes and changes in moisture status, and deeper permafrost and peatland strata down to several tens of meters depth where organic carbon is usually not affected by short-term changes.

TL;DR: The combination of several molecular ‘omics’ approaches is used to determine the phylogenetic composition of the microbial communities, including several draft genomes of novel species, their functional potential and activity in soils representing different states of thaw: intact permafrost, seasonally thawed active layer and thermokarst bog.