Impacts of land use on protist community structure - Raw sequence reads. agricultural soil

This work studied the impact of different land uses, soil managements and intensities on protist community diversity and structure in soils across Europe. Protists are important components of trophic chains and nutrient cycles in terrestrial environments, where their relationships and functional roles may vary from parasitic to phagotrophic or saprotrophic, influencing the overall soil community dynamics. However, broad surveys of protists in agricultural environments are scarce. Protist microbiomes were highly differentiated across environments and network analysis and functional profiling demonstrated that land use management and intensities have functionally consistent effects. The results of this study identified specific protist taxa and protist trophic groups that can be used to track community patterns that are linked to land use intensification. Our snapshot study of protist diversity (living or dead) provides a baseline of protist diversity in different European areas that can help to characterize and understand the agricultural protist microbiome.