Impact of land use on the soil microbiota and soil abiotic traits in tropical and subtropical Brazilian ecoregions

Abstract Land uses influence soil microbiota and soil abiotic traits in the Brazilian Tropical and Subtropical ecoregions. Our aim was to test if different land uses may influence the soil microbiota and the soil chemical properties in agroforestry systems (AF), unassisted forest restoration (UFR), and natural ecosystem (Ne) located at Tropical and Subtropical ecosystems from North-eastern and Southern, Brazil, respectively. We have used the joint analysis of a series of experiments in a randomized block design. In the three land uses, we collected soil samples to determine arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community, soil nematode, soil pH, available P, and soil organic carbon (SOC) from January 2018 to January 2022 using a semestral schedule. Soil microbiota richness in the AF and Ne was similar in the tropical ecosystem. The PCA analysis showed SOC, soil pH, Fungivores, Bacterivores, Racocetra coralloidea, Dentiscutata scutata, and D. erythrophus as the main factors contributing to the variance of the samples. Differences were associated with (1) the land uses by promoting different habitat, as we found difference on soil microbiota abundance, and diversity as affected by habitat simplification, and (2) changes in soil pH, SOC, and available P. These results contribute to a deeper view of the soil microbiota community composition in different land uses from two Brazilian ecosystems. Our work increases the understanding of the soil microbiota com-munity structure in the rhizosphere of AF and Ne in tropical and subtropical ecosystems.