Plant succession is among the fundamental concepts in ecology. Studies addressing plant recruitment, successional mechanisms, and the role of root-colonizing fungi with focus on dark-septate endophytes (DSE) were
conducted in the laboratory and on the forefront of receding Lyman Glacier (North Cascade Range, Washington, U.S.A.). Primary successional studies primarily focus...
Retreating glaciers and the periglacial areas they vacate for organismal colonization produce a harsh environment of extreme radiation, nutrient limitations, and temperature oscillations. They provide a model system for studying mechanisms that drive establishment and early assembly of communities. Here, we synthesize more than twenty years of research at the...
A new functional gene database, FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes), was developed to screen environmental metagenomic sequence datasets. FOAM provides a new functional ontology dedicated to classify gene functions relevant to environmental microorganisms based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Sets of aligned protein sequences (i.e. ‘profiles’) were tailored to...