Diversified crop rotations exert a profound influence on the nosZI denitrifier community

Agricultural soils are a significant contributor to global nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, which is primarily driven by microbial nitrification and denitrification processes. Diversifying crop rotations can enhance soil nitrogen (N) utilization and influence N-cycling microbes, particularly the denitrifiers. Here, we evaluated the abundance, diversity, and community structure of soil denitrifiers by analyzing the denitrification genes (nirS, nirK, and nosZI) with a 14-year experiment of continuous and rotated crop systems. Compared to continuous cotton (C), crop rotations altered abundance of the nirS, nirK, and nosZI genes, but the responses varied among different rotation patterns (p