Microbial community responses to land-use types and its ecological roles in mining area

Mining activities result in adverse impacts on soil ecosystems, leading to environmental damage and ecological degradation. Soil microorganisms are considered critical for soil ecosystem restoration. However, questions about how soil microbiomes respond to land-use types and their beneficial roles in soil restoration have received little attention. Here, we collected soils from replicated plots representing three land-use types (forest, grass, and farmland soil) in a mining area to study the distributional pattern of soil microbiome across land-use types and their roles in soil ecological restoration. The results demonstrated that the specific sets of OTUs were divided into three distinct microbial sub-communities, which were thriving across the land-use types, and that this pattern was explained by the nutrient status of the soil samples. We demonstrated that land-use type had a marked influence on the microbial co-occurrence network. We observed that nutrient and metal(loid) parameters, i.e., Tl, Sb, K, P, and Ca, were the main determinants of keystone OTUs, which were linked to network stability. The distribution of microbial taxa is in line with their putative lifestyles, thereby maintaining nutrient cycling across land-use types. This study provides important information on the occurrence and distribution of the soil microbiomes in mining areas and their potentially beneficial roles in soil restoration. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study found that soil microbiomes play a crucial role in soil ecosystem restoration, with their distribution pattern and co-occurrence networks being influenced by land-use types and nutrient status. The presence of keystone OTUs linked to nutrient and metal parameters suggests their potential application in soil restoration efforts.