Natural forest regeneration on abandoned agricultural land is an increasingly common, but understudied, landcover change in the tropics. We studied whether observed changes in microbial community composition with forest regeneration led to changes in functional potential. We used GeoChip 3.0 to measure microbial functional potential for carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and sulfur (S) cycling genes in pastures, early successional, and late successional forests in Puerto Rico. We found lower abundance and diversity of genes involved in C, N, and P in late successional forests compared to other landcover types. Soil microbial communities were functionally similar in active pastures and early successional forests. Our results suggest microbial functional potential varies with forest age, with potential implications for tropical biogeochemistry.

在热带地区，废弃农业土地上的天然林再生是一种越来越普遍但未被研究的土地覆盖变化。我们研究了观察到的森林更新过程中微生物群落组成的变化是否导致功能潜力的变化。我们使用GeoChip 3.0来测量波多黎各牧场，早期演替森林和后期演替森林中碳（C），氮（N），磷（P）和硫（S）循环基因的微生物功能潜力。与其他土地覆被类型相比，我们发现晚期演替森林中涉及C，N和P的基因的丰度和多样性较低。在活跃的牧场和早期演替森林中，土壤微生物群落的功能相似。我们的结果表明，微生物功能潜力随森林年龄而变化，