In this activity, we aim to establish the geochemical conditions across each landfill’s survey sites and between landfill locations, and will determine the soil microbial community composition. We will use soil samples obtained from each infrastructure location at landfills, taking care not to disturb the integrity of the soil cover or underlying clay layers. Samples will undergo 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing for initial microbial community characterization, and will be assessed for key geochemical variables (e.g., nitrate, nitrite, ammonia; electrical conductivity; pH; saturation, organic matter content). Part of the samples will be preserved for future proteomics in Activity 4 and enrichment culturing in Activity 6.
We anticipate that our preliminary assessment of the microbial community composition will lead to the identification of sites with enrichments in known methanotrophic lineages. We will further establish an archived database of landfill cover soil samples for the multi-omic analyses in Activity 4 and enrichment culturing in Activity 6.