Soil bacterial communities across a commercial potato field display spatial variations associated with landform. soil bacterial communities

This study examined the spatial distribution of soil bacterial communities and the factors controlling this distribution, in a commercial potato field. Eighty-three soil samples were systematically collected across a transect of approximately 1100 m long with rolling landform. Soils were analyzed using next-generation sequencing technique targeting for bacterial16S rRNA gene. In transect, the composition of bacterial communities was highly diverse. But the distribution of bacterial communities was non-random in the space. This spatial pattern of bacterial communities influenced directly by soil physico-chemical properties and indirectly by topographic features and geographic distance. The most influential factors were soil pH and slope, but variability in soil pH was attributed by the slope variability within any landscape. Result of this study indicates that the soil microbial communities vary in systematic and predictable fashion in agricultural fields in response to variation in soil physico-chemical properties and landscape position.