Diversity 2013, 5, 461-478; doi:10.3390/d5030461 OPEN ACCESS diversity ISSN 1424-2818 www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity Article Assessing the Diversity and Composition of Bacterial Communities across a Wetland, Transition, Upland Gradient in Macon County Alabama Raymon Shange 1,2,*, Esther Haugabrooks 3, Ramble Ankumah 2, Abasiofiok M. Ibekwe 4, Ronald C. Smith 2 and Scot Dowd 5 1 Carver Integrative Sustainability Center, Tuskegee, AL 36088, USA 2 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, USA; E-Mails:
[email protected] (R.A.);
[email protected] (R.C.S.) 3 Department of Food Science Health and Nutrition, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA; E-Mail:
[email protected] 4 United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service-United States Salinity Lab, Riverside, CA 92507, USA; E-Mail:
[email protected] 5 Molecular Research LP, Shallowater, TX 79363, USA; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-334-724-4967; Fax: +1-334-727-8552. Received: 15 April 2013; in revised form: 29 May 2013 / Accepted: 21 June 2013 / Published: 3 July 2013 Abstract: Wetlands provide essential functions to the ecosphere that range from water filtration to flood control. Current methods of evaluating the quality of wetlands include assessing vegetation, soil type, and period of inundation. With recent advances in molecular and bioinformatic techniques, measurement of the structure and composition of soil bacterial communities have become an alternative to traditional methods of ecological assessment. The objective of the current study was to determine whether soil bacterial community composition and structure changed along a single transect in Macon County, AL.