Forefields of two receding glaciers were sampled along either a 150 or 200 m long transect at identical spatial intervals for assessment of soil microbial activity and community diversity trends. The forefields belonged to the Dammaglacier (forefield area is 157 ha, 2000 m above sea level) and Rotfirnglacier (100 ha, 2200 m) and at the time of sampling were receding at an estimated rate of 8 and 10 m yr(-1) over the past 5 years, respectively. Direct counting of bacteria (DAPI staining), assessment of dehydrogenase activity (DH), and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis activity (FDA) were performed to estimate bacteria number and soil microbial activity. Along the Dammaglacier forefield (from youngest to oldest soil), bacteria number (8.21 x 10(7) to 1.49 x 10(9) cells g(-1) soil), DH activity (0 to 61 mg TTC reduced g(-1) soil h(-1)), and FDA activity (0 to 100 mg fluorescein produced g-1 soil h-1) increased, suggesting the development of microbial populations increasing in number and activity. The Rotfirn forefield exhibited similar trends per gram of soil in bacteria number (1.13 x 10(8) to 5.93 x 10(9) cells), DH activity (0 to 36 mg TTC reduced), and FDA activity (2 to 70 mg fluorescein produced), but with more variability among samples than the Damma forefield samples. Molecular assessment of bacterial diversity included denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) of soil DNA. DGGE and RISA revealed that the composition and succession of bacterial populations were different in both forefields. Comparison of Shannon diversity index values indicated that all populations sampled from the Damma forefield were significantly different (p < 0.05). Conversely, similar populations existed in the Rotfirn forefield succession. Overall, the results indicate that diverse bacterial assemblages increasing in number and activity characterize these glacier forefield soils with both forefield successions exhibiting differing modes of bacterial community establishment.