Differentially abundant bacteria drive the N 2 -fixation of a widespread moss in the forest-tundra transition zone

Bryophytes maintain symbiosis with bacteria influencing the local nutrient budget. Moss bacterial communities are composed of a core microbiome and bacteria recruited from environmental sources. Notably, symbiotic N 2 -fixing bacteria contribute to the N budget in northern ecosystems through biological nitrogen fixation. This process may be affected by the abundance of diazotrophs and moss nutrient content. We used the abundant moss Racomitrium lanuginosum in a forest tundra and shrub tundra in Northern Quebec, Canada, to investigate the bacterial and diazotrophic communities associated with habitat type using amplicon sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA and nifH genes and test whether the moss core microbiome has recruitment from the soil bacteria community. The nifH amplicons and element analysis were used to test the effect of diazotrophic abundance and moss nutrient content on N 2 -fixation activity estimated by acetylene reduction assays. Moss microbial communities between tundra types hosted similar bacterial diversity but differentially abundant groups and characteristic microbial interaction patterns. The core microbiome of R. lanuginosum is composed of bacteria strongly associated with northern mosses with no significant recruitment from the soil. The relative abundances of dominant diazotrophs are significantly correlated with acetylene reduction rates. In contrast, the moss nutrient content did not significantly drive N 2 -fixation. The proteobacterial genera Azorhizobium and Rhodomicrobium represent newly reported bacteria associated with N 2 -fixation rates in the tundra. We identified critical bacterial groups related to moss-bacterial symbiosis and N 2 -fixation in the forest-tundra transition zone, a changing environment susceptible to climate warming.