Agricultural crop rotations control dissemination of antibiotics in soil-earthworm-crop continuums

• Crop rotation significantly affects the fate of antibiotics in soil-earthworm-crop systems. • Earthworms accumulate higher antibiotic concentrations than crops. • Cropland arrangement explains 36.1% of the variation in antibiotic concentrations across crop rotation systems. • Optimizing cropland patterns can effectively reduce antibiotic pollution in agroecosystem. Antibiotics are extensively utilized worldwide and are introduced into agroecosystems primarily through manure application and wastewater irrigation. This study provides a novel examination of the fate of antibiotics within soil-earthworm-crop continuums under different crop rotations—fritillary to peanut (F-P), maize (F-M), and eggplant (F-E). We found earthworms and crops showed substantial antibiotic bioaccumulation, underscoring their role in systemic soil-to-biota transfer. The F-M rotation system exhibited higher antibiotic concentrations in soils and earthworms but lower levels in crop fruits compared to F-P and F-E systems. The study revealed that landscape patterns and soil physicochemical properties, particularly the percentage of cropland area and soil pH, significantly influence antibiotic concentrations, accounting for 41.8% of variability in soils and 42.4% in earthworms, while agricultural practices primarily influence edible crops (37.0%). These findings emphasize the importance of crop rotation in managing antibiotic contamination and advocate for optimizing cropland layouts and soil management to enhance agroecosystem sustainability.