Microbial community in the soil determines the forest recovery post-exposure to gamma irradiation

Exposure of an ecosystem to ionizing radiation remains a possibility either due to accidents involving nuclear fuel rods or contamination with high-level radioactive wastes. While the short and long-term effect of ionizing radiation on higher eukaryotes has been well documented, we do not have an understanding on the recovery of the microbial community post radiation. Here we report that at a site within Brookhaven National Laboratory that was radiated from 1961 to 1978 with γ rays (Gamma Forest), the ecosystem has not yet fully recovered from the effects of radiation. The current vegetation type in the Gamma Forest varies as one goes away from the source of ionizing radiation, with the region closest to the source having no vegetation. The microbial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing analysis of the soil from different regions suggests that the current microbial community structure is identical in all the Zones. When soil samples from each vegetation zone of the Gamma Forest were radiated with 1.8 kGy γ radiation and survival microbial community analyzed, clear difference in the microbial communities were observed. It is evident based on the experimental data that the colonization of soil with Nitrosomonadaceae is critical for the higher plants in pine barrens to reestablish and grow after the area had been exposed to ionizing radiation.