Land conversion to cropland homogenizes variation in soil biota, gene assemblages, and ecological strategies on local and regional scales.

ABSTRACT: It is widely considered that conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture results in biotic homogenization. A recent study comparing soil biota of 27 paired natural steppe soil (NS) and agricultural soil (AS) sites across 900 km in north-eastern China found that conversion to agriculture had increased spatial gradients in soil functional genes. Using the same shotgun metagenome samples, and bacterial amplicon data, we instead analyzed total observed variation at the between-site and within-site level. We found that from the perspective of community taxonomic composition, archaeal and fungal community variation was decreased in AS compared to NS at both within- and between-site scales. In contrast, the bacterial and metazoal community was homogenized only at the local scale. Total functi

SUBMITTER: Gu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12746289 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature