soil metagenome
This study was conducted in the Zhuanyaogou watershed, located in Hequ County, Shanxi Province, within the Loess Plateau . Field sampling was conducted in September 2022. Based on vegetation restoration types, replicate sites of three ecosystems were selected: Robinia pseudoacacia (Rp) forest, Caragana korshinskii (Ck) shrubland, and abandoned grassland (Ag). These sites had similar recovery periods (25 years) and geographical characteristics, and all were subjected to comparable agricultural practices prior to afforestation. In each replicate site, three 20 m multiply 20 m plots were established. Within each plot, five 2 m multiply 2 m subplots were positioned at the four corners and center. After removing the litter layer, 15 soil cores (0 to 10 cm depth) were collected using a soil auger from the five subplots and combined into a single composite soil sample per plot.