Soil bacterial community in a hilly farmland of Ghana

Spatial distance and underlying soil edaphic properties appeared to override the management practices impacts on soil bacterial community structure and assembly. Agronomic implications for bacterial community structure were also contingent upon field topography, in foot-slope tillage practice and in up-slope residual management significantly altered bacterial community structure. Foot-slope harbored high relative abundance of Bacillaceae (28.95%), while Micrococcaceae (25.79%) gained prominence in up-slope. The bacterial Community assemblage significantly associated with soil pH, clay, total C% (MWC%), volumetric water content, temperature, cation exchange capacity, NO3--N, and P. Homogeneity in bacterial community assemblages declined along with enhancement of soil physiochemical heterogeneity (slope= -0.32), geographic distance (slope= -0.18), and elevation (slope= -0.09). Soil edaphic properties 21.5% and spatial distance 18.4% strongly contributed to the variation of bacterial community assembly.