Land use change impact on bacterial functional evenness

Abstract

Land use changes result in differentiation of organic matter inputs, influencing resource availability and consequently, biodiversity. Microorganisms, widely present in soil and involved in most biogeochemical cycles, can serve as biological indicators to understand the impact of soil changes on their ecological functions. Considering that alterations in soil vegetation structure affect available resources and can modify microbial functional diversity, this study investigated the abundance and diversity of functional bacterial groups in soils with different vegetation covers. The work was conducted with 28 soil samples from the Ecological Station of Aiuaba - Ceará, Brazil and surrounding areas, classified according to vegetation and land use. The abundance and functional diversity of five bacterial groups (actinobacteria, cellulolytic, amylolytic, phosphate solubilizing, and free-living diazotrophic) present in these samples, as well as soil chemical parameters, were evaluated. While functional redundancy was suggested, the results highlighted the importance and influence of soil properties and plant communities on the abundance and diversity of bacterial functional groups.