Microbial diversity in the arid and semi-arid soils of Botswana.

ABSTRACT: To date, little research has been conducted on the landscape-scale distribution of soil microbial communities and the factors driving their community structures in the drylands of Africa. We investigated the influence of landscape-scale variables on microbial community structure and diversity across different ecological zones in Botswana. We used amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and a suite of environmental parameters to determine drivers of microbial community structure. Bacterial communities were dominated by Actinomycetota (21.1%), Pseudomonadota (15.9%), and Acidobacteriota (10.9%). The dominant fungal communities were Ascomycota (57.3%) and Basidiomycota (7.5%). Soil pH, mean annual precipitation, total organic carbon, and so

SUBMITTER: Tidimalo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11558117 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature