Complex impacts of hydraulic fracturing return fluids on soil microbial community respiration, structure and functional potentials

Summary The consequences of soils exposed to hydraulic fracturing (HF) return fluid, often collectively termed flowback and produced water (FPW), are poorly understood, even though soils are a common receptor of FPW spills. Here, we investigate the impacts on soil microbiota exposed to FPW collected from the Montney Formation of western Canada. We measured soil respiration, microbial community structure and functional potentials under FPW exposure across a range of concentrations, exposure time and soil types (luvisol and chernozem). We find that soil type governs microbial community response upon FPW exposure. Within each soil, FPW exposure led to reduced biotic soil respiration, and shifted microbial community structure and functional potentials. We detect substantially higher species richness and more unique functional genes in FPW‐exposed soils than in FPW‐unexposed soils, with metagenome‐assembled genomes (e.g. Marinobacter persicus) from luvisol soil exposed to concentrated FPW being most similar to genomes from HF/FPW sites. Our data demonstrate the complex impacts of microbial communities following FPW exposure and highlight the site‐specific effects in evaluation of spills and agricultural reuse of FPW on the normal soil functions.