Influence of cold storage on soil microbial community level physiological profiles and implications for soil quality monitoring

Following collection of soil, storage prior to analyses is often required where the microbial community is unlikely to remain stable. We assessed the change in microbial community level physiological profiles (CLPP) during cold storage at 4 °C between 3 and 101 days. We hypothesized that the microbial community in soils containing less carbon would be affected more rapidly by storage. In particular we wanted to ascertain whether variability in CLPP through time masked inherent differences between soils derived from different ecosystems. Results illustrated that whilst total CO₂ evolution did vary with incubation time, significant differences in microbial community structure were detected between ecosystems for all times. Thus storage time did not mask intrinsic differences in microbial community structure between ecosystems.