Divergent Shift in Soil Microbial Communities Through Conversion From Forestland to Vineyards

ABSTRACT Conversion of forestland to vineyards can substantially alter soil microbial communities, yet the ecological mechanisms underlying these shifts remain unclear in arid regions. Here, we compared forest and vineyard soils at two grape‐growing sites in Xinjiang, China, using amplicon sequencing and metagenomics to examine microbial diversity, community composition, co‐occurrence networks, assembly patterns, and nutrient‐related functional genes. Relative to forest soils, vineyard soils showed reduced bacterial diversity and distinct shifts in both bacterial and fungal community composition. Bacterial communities were more strongly associated with soil total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), suggesting that increased resource availability and altered nutrient stoichiometry favored copiotrophic taxa and nitrogen‐transformation functions. In contrast, fungal communities were more closely linked to soil phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), indicating distinct nutrient constraints and adaptation strategies between bacterial and fungal communities. Metagenomic analyses further revealed enrichment of bacterial genes involved in nitrogen cycling and fungal genes related to phosphorus and nucleotide metabolism in vineyard soils. These findings suggest that forest‐to‐vineyard conversion reorganizes soil microbial communities through domain‐specific nutrient filtering and provides a mechanistic basis for nutrient management aimed at sustaining soil function in arid viticultural systems.