Abstract
Soil microorganisms are essential for sustaining ecosystem functions, driving biogeochemical cycles, and modulating carbon storage. However, the nutrient-mediated mechanisms by which different land-use types shape soil microbial communities remain unclear. This study investigated three typical land-use types—plantation, grassland, and high-standard cropland—in Xinyang City, China, to evaluate their effects on soil microbial community. Results showed that soil nutrient contents—including total nitrogen, total phosphorus, alkaline-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and available phosphorus—as well as microbial alpha diversity indices, were consistently higher in topsoil than in subsoil and more pronounced in plantation than in grassland and cropland. Acidobacteriota, Pseudomonadota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota dominated across all land uses, though community composition varied significantly among them. Network analysis revealed strongest microbial connectivity in plantation, intermediate in grassland, and weakest in cropland. Our findings demonstrate that land-use type and soil depth directly affect soil available nutrients, thereby influencing microbial diversity. This study clarifies the nutrient-driven pathways through which land use affects soil ecosystems, providing important insights for sustainable land management and ecological conservation.
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Data availability
The raw sequence data reported in this paper have been deposited in the Genome Sequence Archive (Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics 2025) in National Genomics Data Center (Nucleic Acids Res 2025), China National Center for Bioinformation / Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (GSA: CRA033082; CRA033083) that are publicly accessible at https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa.
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Acknowledgements
We thank this work was supported by the National Key Wildlife Conservation Project (GTH [2024]153). We would like to express our special gratitude to Professors Chunxiao Song and Tianxiao Ma for their review and revision of the manuscript.
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This study was supported by the National Key Wildlife Conservation Project (GTH [2024]153).
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GH, YR and XH conceived the idea; GH, RY, XH and SH performed the experiments, data analysis, prepared the figures and wrote the manuscript; ZG, CS and TM edited the manuscript, and all authors gave approval for the manuscript.
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Huang, G., Rong, Y., Song, C. et al. Influence of land-use types on soil microbial communities and nutrient changes in Xinyang City, China. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38635-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38635-z
