Soil Microbial Communities in Desert Grassland around Rare Earth Mine: Diversity, Variation, and Response Patterns

Bayan Obo mine is so far the world’s largest rare earth mine. Critical concerns arise as (1) whether there an accumulation of exogenous elements (REE) in desert steppe on periphery and (2) how affects soil microbial communities nearby. In this study, nine sample sites were set up according to their distance gradients from Illumina high-throughput sequencing targeting 16S rRNA genes conducted. The results show that at vary gradients. Fortunately, no significant effects physicochemical properties found. However, composition community changed significantly response variation gradient. Highly abundant genera YC-ZSS-LKJ147, Subgroup_10, Sphingomonas positively correlated with REE, whereas Pseudomonas negative correlated. Total phosphorus (TP) was attributed 5.95% communities, followed by light (LREE, 5.39%). study provides evidence for ecological risks posed ecosystems long-term REE