Soil ammonia oxidizers play essential roles in nitrogen cycling in many forest ecosystems. Since the compositions and functions of soil ammonia oxidizer could be suffered from obviously seasonal snow cover and freeze鄄thaw cycles in high latitude / altitude region, there might be significant differences of soil ammonia oxidizer in different periods caused by seasonal freeze鄄thaw cycles. However, little attention has been paid to the variations of soil ammonia oxidizer in different key periods in subalpine / alpine regions. To determine the abundance and distribution of bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidizers in subalpine and alpine forest, three representative forests (primitive Abies faxoniana forest, PF; mixed A. faxoniana and Betula albosinensis forest, MF, and secondary A. faxoniana forest, SF) were selected in the alipine / subalpine region of Western China. Soils were sampled in soil organic layer (OL) due to the sensitive responses to seasonal
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