ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2022
Soil Depth Significantly Shifted Microbial Community Structures and Functions in a Semiarid Prairie Agroecosystem.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbial community changes mediate the decline in soil organic carbon mineralization with depth in tea plantations.Carbon balance and management · 2026Article
- Soil Microbial Dynamics in Regenerative Agriculture Systems: A Data-Driven Synthesis for Soil Health, Pest Suppression, and Yield Sustainability in the Western Canadian Prairies.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Compartment-specific archaeal responses to alpine wetland grasslandification reveal distinct taxonomic, functional, and network reorganization across soil-root interfacial continua.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Bacterial communities profiles of soil in Hulu Langat recreational parks, Selangor.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Functional stratification and enzymatic arrangement in microbial communities across a hypersaline depth gradient.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The soil microbiome: An essential, but neglected, component of regenerative agroecosystems.iScience · 2023Review
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8 authors.
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Abstract
The North American Great Plains cover a large area of the Nearctic ecozone, and an important part of this biome is semiarid. The sustainable intensification of agriculture that is necessary to produce food for an ever-increasing world population requires knowledge of the taxonomic and functional structure of the soil microbial community. In this study, we investigated the influence of soil depth on the composition and functions of the microbial communities hosted in agricultural soils of a semiarid agroecosystem, using metagenomic profiling, and compared them to changes in soil chemical and physical properties. Shotgun sequencing was used to determine the composition and functions of the soil microbial community of 45 soil samples from three soil depths (0-15 cm, 15-30 cm, and 30-60 cm) under different agricultural land use types (native prairie, seeded prairie, and cropland) in southwest Saskatchewan. Analysis of community composition revealed the declining abundance of phyla Verrucomicrobia, Bacteroidetes, Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta, and Acidobacteria with soil depth, whereas the abundance of phyla Ascomycota, Nitrospirae, Planctomycetes, and Cyanobacteria increased with soil depth. Soil functional genes related to nucleosides and nucleotides, phosphorus (P) metabolism, cell division and cell cycle, amino acids and derivatives, membrane transport, and fatty acids were particularly abundant at 30-60 cm. In contrast, functional genes related to DNA and RNA metabolism, metabolism of nitrogen, sulfur and carbohydrates, and stress response were more abundant in the top soil depth. The RDA analysis of functional genes and soil physico-chemical properties revealed a positive correlation between phages and soil organic P concentrations. In the rooting zone of this semiarid agroecosystem, soil microbes express variable structural patterns of taxonomic and functional diversity at different soil depths. This study shows that the soil microbial community is structured by soil depth and physicochemical properties, with the middle soil depth being an intermediate transition zone with a higher taxonomic diversity. Our results suggest the co-existence of various microbial phyla adapted to upper and lower soil depths in an intermediate-depth transition zone.
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