Soil-gut microbial interactions under pastoral systems

This study investigated soil–gut microbial linkages in grazing ruminants under contrasting pasture diversity (standard vs diverse) and management practices (contemporary vs regenerative). Bacterial communities from soil and ruminant faecal samples (cattle and sheep) were characterised using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Shared taxa between soil and gut were identified, and alpha and beta diversity relationships were assessed using Spearman correlations and Procrustes analyses. Several taxa were detected in both environments but were generally more abundant in the gut, indicating host-associated filtering. Soil bacterial alpha diversity was consistently higher than gut diversity across all treatments. Correlations between soil and gut diversity were weak and non-significant, and community composition relationships varied temporally without consistent patterns. Overall, results indicate that while soil serves as a microbial reservoir, gut microbiome structure is primarily shaped by host-driven ecological processes rather than direct soil influence.