Contrasting bacterial communities and their assembly processes in karst soils under different land use

Structure and assembly processes of soil bacterial communities under different land use at karst areas remained poorly understood to date. To address this issue, soil samples from arable land and pristine forest over a karst cave, located in the acid rain impacted area, Hubei province, were collected and subjected to high-throughput sequencing and multivariate statistical analysis. Bacterial communities and functions remarkably distinguished between soils under different land use. Both edaphic properties (the content of SO42−, C/N, pH, TN) and weathering processes, such as Si concentration, Mg/Al and Ca/Al, significantly impacted on soil bacterial community structures. Variable selections were predominant ecological processes, and pH and SO42− concentration were of significance in community assembly. Random molecular ecological network analysis revealed a more stable and complex microbial network in the forest ecosystem, which can quickly response to environmental change. Forest soil bacteria were mainly phototrophs, involving in C and N cycles, whereas those in arable soils were mainly chemoheterotrophs, capable of degrading organic fertilizers due to anthropogenic activities as confirmed by the analysis of keystone taxa, indicators and functional prediction. These results reveal that land use constructed soil bacterial communities in different aspects such as the structure, potential functions, microbial interactions and correlations with environmental variables. To our knowledge, this is the first report on bacterial community assembly in karst soils under different land use which enhances our understanding about how land use impact on microbial interaction and community assembly processes. [Display omitted] •How land use impacting on bacterial community is poorly understood at the karst area.•Bacterial communities were clearly distinguished by land use.•Both edaphic properties and weathering processes controlled bacterial community.•Pristine forest showed more stable and complex bacterial network.•Variable selection determined the assembly of bacterial communities in karst soil.