The projected increase in freeze-thaw frequency associated with warmer temperatures in the High Arctic could affect the dynamics of soil bacterial communities. We report here the effects of freeze-thaw (FT) cycles on High Arctic bacterial communities of soil samples collected from three sites with different depths of snow cover. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences showed that bacterial diversity in soil sampled under high snow cover were significantly different from those under low snow cover and those with no snow cover, and showed little change in community diversity after nine consecutive FT cycles. Conversely, bacterial diversity in soil samples under low and with no snow cover decreased after the simulated FT cycles. It is therefore likely that reduced snow cover will influence soil bacterial community structure through an increased frequency of freeze-thaw cycling.

与北极高地温度升高相关的冻融频率的预计增加可能会影响土壤细菌群落的动态。我们在这里报告了冻融（FT）周期对从三个不同积雪深度的地点采集的土壤样品的高北极细菌群落的影响。16S rRNA基因扩增子序列分析表明，高积雪条件下土壤的细菌多样性与低积雪条件下和无积雪条件下的土壤细菌差异显着，并且连续9个FT周期后群落多样性几乎没有变化。相反，在模拟的FT循环后，低且没有积雪的土壤样品中的细菌多样性下降。