A recent study by Professor We Gehong's team at the College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, found that changes in agricultural land use affect the relationship between soil microbial communities and functions. The findings were published in Nature Communications.
Through large-scale soil sample surveys and global meta-analyses, the research compared the differences in soil microbial communities and functions between natural ecosystems (forests, grasslands, and wetlands) and farmland. The study revealed that the conversion of agricultural land has led to the homogenization of soil bacterial communities and functions, with a decrease in 20% of taxa due to land conversion, while 23% of taxa increased. Groups such as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Chloroflexi were significantly enriched in cultivated land, with a significant reduction in functional genes related to nitrogen fixation, phosphorus mineralization, and transport in cultivated land.
The study compared the differences in microbial communities and functions between natural ecosystems and agricultural soil.
Link to the related paper: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47348-8
