Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-513-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-513-2020
Original research article
 | 
22 Oct 2020
Original research article |  | 22 Oct 2020

Microbial communities and their predictive functional profiles in the arid soil of Saudi Arabia

Munawwar A. Khan and Shams T. Khan

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Cited articles

Aislabie, J. M., Chhour, K.-L., Saul, D. J., Miyauchi, S., Ayton, J., Paetzold, R. F., and Balks, M. R.: Dominant bacteria in soils of Marble Point and Wright Valley, Victoria Land, Antarctica, Soil Biol. Biochem., 38, 3041–3056, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2006.02.018, 2006. 
Al-Zahrani, M., Al-Areeq, A., and Sharif, H. O.: Estimating urban flooding potential near the outlet of an arid catchment in Saudi Arabia, Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 8, 672–688, 2017. 
Andrew, D. R., Fitak, R. R., Munguia-Vega, A., Racolta, A., Martinson, V. G., and Dontsova, K.: Abiotic Factors Shape Microbial Diversity in Sonoran Desert Soils, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 78, 7527–7537, https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01459-12, 2012. 
Armstrong, A., Valverde, A., Ramond, J.-B., Makhalanyane, T., Jansson, J., Hopkins, D., Aspray, T., Seely, M., Tuffin, M., and Cowan, D.: Temporal dynamics of hot desert microbial communities reveal structural and functional responses to water input, Sci. Rep., 6, 34434, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34434, 2016. 
Busarakam, K., Bull, A. T., Trujillo, M. E., Riesco, R., Sangal, V., van Wezel, G. P., and Goodfellow, M.: Modestobacter caceresii sp. nov., novel actinobacteria with an insight into their adaptive mechanisms for survival in extreme hyper-arid Atacama Desert soils, Syst. Appl. Microbiol., 39, 243–251, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.syapm.2016.03.007, 2016. 
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Short summary
Soil is a renewable resource for purposes ranging from agriculture to mineralization. Soil microbiome plays vital roles in facilitating process like providing nutrients to plants, or their mobilization for plant uptake, consequently improving plant growth and productivity. Therefore, understanding of these microbial communities and their role in soil is crucial for exploring the possibility of using microbial community inoculants for improving desert soil fertility and agricultural potential.