Community structure of prokaryotes and their functional potential in subsoils is more affected by spatial heterogeneity than by temporal variations

Spatial and temporal dynamics of microbial community structure and function in subsoils have been rarely studied in the past. In this paper we present data on how bacterial communities as well as selected functional groups of microbes change in the rhizosphere, the drilosphere, and in bulk soil over time in topsoil as well as in subsoil. We show that the overall richness of bacteria and abundance of nitrifiers and denitrifiers decreases in bulk soil with soil depth. However, these effects were not or to a much lower degree observed in the rhizosphere and the drilosphere. Temporal fluctuations contributed by far less than spatial factors to the dynamics of bacterial communities and abundance of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in all compartments independent from the soil depth.