Halle Belden

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Ryba, Tyrone

Area of Concentration

Biology with Chemistry

Abstract

In the age of climate change, understanding the soil microbiome has crucial implications to food security, carbon management, and pollutant sequestration and degradation. The relationship between structure, function, and composition of microbial communities is in the early phases of being understood. In this experiment, 16S rDNA sequencing was used to characterize the microbiome of the soil with the goal of understanding if soil microbiome composition is driven by function, and therefore dependent on local ecological needs, or driven by location. Samples were taken from six distinct habitats of Triangle Ranch in Myakka City, FL. The data showed patterns of microbiome similarity between sites of the same habitat type, as well as location, demonstrating the need for more systematic comparisons to define such patterns. The findings of this paper demonstrate that (1) a comprehensive collection of publicly accessible data, (2) methodological advancement of analyses, and (3) standardized collaboration are necessary to produce a map of the world’s microbiomes to be used in meta-analyses to further understand microbial community structure and function.

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