Land use conversion increases network complexity and stability of soil microbial communities in a temperate grassland

Soils harbor highly diverse microbial communities that are critical to soil health, but agriculture has caused extensive land use conversion resulting in negative effects on critical ecosystem processes. However, the responses and adaptations of microbial communities to land use conversion have not yet been understood. Here, we examined the effects of land conversion for long-term crop use on the network complexity and stability of soil microbial communities over 19 months. Despite reduced microbial biodiversity in comparison with native tallgrass prairie, conventionally tilled (CT) cropland significantly increased network complexity such as connectivity, connectance, average clustering coefficient, relative…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture

  Awards: 2016-68002-24967, 3070-21610-003-00D
• UO
  University of Oklahoma
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture

  Awards: 2016-68002-24967, 3070-21610-003-00D
• AR
  Agricultural Research Service
• SC
  Supercomputing Center for Education and Research, University of Oklahoma