Soil pH and nitrate shape deterministic assembly of microbial communities in agricultural soils via Nitrososphaeria.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the assembly mechanisms of soil microbial communities is critical for maintaining nitrogen cycling in agricultural ecosystems, which underpins soil fertility and sustains crop productivity. While environmental filtering and biotic interactions shape these communities, our understanding of how functional taxa interact with soil properties across extensive agricultural landscapes remains limited. Here, we investigated the influence of environmental factors on the Chinese agricultural soil microbiome, integrating assessments of microbiota diversity, composition, and assembly process. The results indicated that soil pH and moisture were among the strongest abiotic factors explaining the agricultural soil microbiota compositional variation at a continental scale, surpassing the ex

SUBMITTER: Yan H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12838428 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature