Land use drives prokaryotic community composition of directly adjacent grasslands

Abstract Understanding the impact of agricultural land use on the soil prokaryotic communities in connected downslope sites is crucial for developing sustainable strategies to preserve ecosystem properties and mitigate agriculture’s environmental impacts. In this study, we investigated topsoil samples collected at three time points in 2022 (March, June, and November) from two adjacent catenas, reaching from hillslope to floodplain. The catenas differed in land use (extensive grassland vs. extensive cropland) at the top and middle parts, while the floodplain remained an extensive grassland due to legal restrictions. Using quantitative real-time PCRs and metabarcoding, we assessed prokaryotic abundance and prokaryotic community composition. Results show higher bacterial abundance in the cropland-influenced floodplain part across all time points compared to the grassland-influenced floodplain part. Temporal dynamics revealed a progressive decrease in the shared prokaryotic communities of the floodplain parts, peaking at the summer sampling time point, indicating a significant influence of the respective management type of the agricultural sites over the bacterial and archaeal communities of the floodplain parts. Differential abundance analyses identified several nitrifying taxa as more abundant in the cropland-influenced floodplain. Upstream land use also influenced the prokaryotic network of the cropland-floodplain, with some cropland taxa becoming keystone taxa and altering network morphology, an effect not observed in the grassland-influenced floodplain. These findings suggest that upstream agricultural land use practices have exerted a long-term influence on the floodplain prokaryotic communities over the past three decades. Moreover, there is evidence suggesting that these prokaryotic communities may undergo a potential reset during winter, which requires further investigation.