Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study assesses the bacterial and fungal communities within the Priest River Experimental Forest in northern Idaho. We employed multiple methods to test for significant impacts of seasonality, moisture level, and sample depth on the composition of the soil microbial communities, as well as explore how members within these communities interact. Abundance data were obtained using two different loci for both bacterial and fungal taxa, therefore, we were able to compare the communities captured. The environmental correlate results imply moisture level had a significant impact within both communities, while depth only significantly impacted the bacterial community. Hierarchical clustering was performed to identify microbes with similar interactions; however, there were no apparent patterns in ecological functionality to explain why the microbes were clustered. These findings indicate further analysis is required to enhance our grasp of the microbial structure between communities. Conclusions suggest that future analyses should use both respective regions to obtain a more complete snapshot of the community.