Impact of land use change on soil properties, enzyme activities, and microbial communities in the Yellow River basin’s Henan segment, China

Soil microbial communities play a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning but can be altered by land use changes. This study investigated the impacts of typical land use changes on soil properties, enzyme activities, and microbial communities in the Henan Segment of the Yellow River basin, China following the conversion from traditional farmland to artificial forests and agroforestry systems. The results indicated that the transition to artificial forests led to an increase in soil organic matter content and soil fertility. Compared with traditional farmland, artificial forests demonstrated higher levels of urease and invertase enzyme activity. The soil microbiomes of traditional farmland and artificial forests had higher proportions of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, whereas the agroforestry systems were enriched in Acidobacteria. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the transition from conventional farmland to artificial forest enhanced soil microbial complexity and cohesion. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Rokubacteria, Planctomycetes, and Gemmatimonadetes were identified as pivotal components of the soil bacterial network during land use change. Redundancy and correlation analyses showed a negative association between certain soil microbial phyla such as Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, and Patescibacteria, and pH, available potassium, and available nitrogen (P © (2024), (Bio Tech System). All rights reserved.