Selective logging and forest conversion to oil palm agriculture are rapidly altering tropical forests. However, functional responses of the soil microbiome to these land\uffe2\uff80\uff90use changes are poorly understood. Using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we compared composition and functional attributes of soil biota between unlogged, once\uffe2\uff80\uff90logged and twice\uffe2\uff80\uff90logged rainforest, and areas converted to oil palm plantations in Sabah, Borneo. Although there was no significant effect of logging history, we found a significant difference between the taxonomic and functional composition of both primary and logged forests and oil palm. Oil palm had greater abundances of genes associated with DNA, RNA, protein metabolism and other core metabolic functions, but conversely, lower abundance of genes associated with secondary metabolism and cell\uffe2\uff80\uff93cell interactions, indicating less importance of antagonism or mutualism in the more oligotrophic oil palm environment. Overall, these results show a striking difference in taxonomic composition and functional gene diversity of soil microorganisms between oil palm and forest, but no significant difference between primary forest and forest areas with differing logging history. This reinforces the view that logged forest retains most features and functions of the original soil community. However, networks based on strong correlations between taxonomy and functions showed that network complexity is unexpectedly increased due to both logging and oil palm agriculture, which suggests a pervasive effect of both land\uffe2\uff80\uff90use changes on the interaction of soil microbes.
", "keywords": ["0301 basic medicine", "Conservation of Natural Resources", "0303 health sciences", "Bacteria", "Microbiota", "Agriculture", "Forestry", "Biodiversity", "Arecaceae", "Forests", "15. Life on land", "03 medical and health sciences", "Borneo", "international", "RNA", " Ribosomal", " 16S", "Metagenome", "Soil Microbiology"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13620"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Molecular%20Ecology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/mec.13620", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/mec.13620", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/mec.13620"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2016-04-20T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1128/aem.02541-13", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-09-21T16:17:59Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2013-09-21", "title": "Impact Of Logging And Forest Conversion To Oil Palm Plantations On Soil Bacterial Communities In Borneo", "description": "ABSTRACTTropical forests are being rapidly altered by logging and cleared for agriculture. Understanding the effects of these land use changes on soil bacteria, which constitute a large proportion of total biodiversity and perform important ecosystem functions, is a major conservation frontier. Here we studied the effects of logging history and forest conversion to oil palm plantations in Sabah, Borneo, on the soil bacterial community. We used paired-end Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, V3 region, to compare the bacterial communities in primary, once-logged, and twice-logged forest and land converted to oil palm plantations. Bacteria were grouped into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at the 97% similarity level, and OTU richness and local-scale \uffce\uffb1-diversity showed no difference between the various forest types and oil palm plantations. Focusing on the turnover of bacteria across space, true \uffce\uffb2-diversity was higher in oil palm plantation soil than in forest soil, whereas community dissimilarity-based metrics of \uffce\uffb2-diversity were only marginally different between habitats, suggesting that at large scales, oil palm plantation soil could have higher overall \uffce\uffb3-diversity than forest soil, driven by a slightly more heterogeneous community across space. Clearance of primary and logged forest for oil palm plantations did, however, significantly impact the composition of soil bacterial communities, reflecting in part the loss of some forest bacteria, whereas primary and logged forests did not differ in composition. Overall, our results suggest that the soil bacteria of tropical forest are to some extent resilient or resistant to logging but that the impacts of forest conversion to oil palm plantations are more severe.
", "keywords": ["DNA", " Bacterial", "0301 basic medicine", "Tropical Climate", "0303 health sciences", "Bacteria", "Agriculture", "Sequence Analysis", " DNA", "15. Life on land", "Biota", "DNA", " Ribosomal", "333", "Trees", "03 medical and health sciences", "Borneo", "13. Climate action", "RNA", " Ribosomal", " 16S", "Soil Microbiology"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02541-13"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Applied%20and%20Environmental%20Microbiology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1128/aem.02541-13", "name": "item", "description": "10.1128/aem.02541-13", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1128/aem.02541-13"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2013-12-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0029642", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-09-21T16:18:15Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2012-01-04", "title": "Carbon Stocks And Fluxes In Tropical Lowland Dipterocarp Rainforests In Sabah, Malaysian Borneo", "description": "Deforestation in the tropics is an important source of carbon C release to the atmosphere. To provide a sound scientific base for efforts taken to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) good estimates of C stocks and fluxes are important. We present components of the C balance for selectively logged lowland tropical dipterocarp rainforest in the Malua Forest Reserve of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Total organic C in this area was 167.9 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b13.8 (SD), including: Total aboveground (TAGC: 55%; 91.9 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b12.9 SEM) and belowground carbon in trees (TBGC: 10%; 16.5 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b10.5 SEM), deadwood (8%; 13.2 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b13.5 SEM) and soil organic matter (SOM: 24%; 39.6 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b10.9 SEM), understory vegetation (3%; 5.1 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b11.7 SEM), standing litter (<1%; 0.7 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b10.1 SEM) and fine root biomass (<1%; 0.9 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b10.1 SEM). Fluxes included litterfall, a proxy for leaf net primary productivity (4.9 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9 yr\u207b\u00b9\u00b10.1 SEM), and soil respiration, a measure for heterotrophic ecosystem respiration (28.6 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9 yr\u207b\u00b9\u00b11.2 SEM). The missing estimates necessary to close the C balance are wood net primary productivity and autotrophic respiration.Twenty-two years after logging TAGC stocks were 28% lower compared to unlogged forest (128 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9\u00b113.4 SEM); a combined weighted average mean reduction due to selective logging of -57.8 Mg C ha\u207b\u00b9 (with 95% CI -75.5 to -40.2). Based on the findings we conclude that selective logging decreased the dipterocarp stock by 55-66%. Silvicultural treatments may have the potential to accelerate the recovery of dipterocarp C stocks to pre-logging levels.", "keywords": ["0106 biological sciences", "1000 Multidisciplinary", "Tropical Climate", "Science", "Rain", "Q", "R", "1100 General Agricultural and Biological Sciences", "Biodiversity", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "Carbon", "Dipterocarpaceae", "Trees", "10127 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies", "Soil", "1300 General Biochemistry", " Genetics and Molecular Biology", "Borneo", "Seedlings", "13. Climate action", "570 Life sciences; biology", "590 Animals (Zoology)", "Medicine", "Biomass", "Research Article"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Saner, Philippe, Loh, Yen Yee, Ong, Robert C., Hector, Andy,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029642"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/PLoS%20ONE", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1371/journal.pone.0029642", "name": "item", "description": "10.1371/journal.pone.0029642", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1371/journal.pone.0029642"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2012-01-03T00:00:00Z"}}], "links": [{"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "This document as GeoJSON", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Borneo&f=json", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "alternate", "type": "text/html", "title": "This document as HTML", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Borneo&f=html", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection URL", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"type": "application/geo+json", "rel": "first", "title": "items (first)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Borneo&", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "last", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "items (last)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Borneo&offset=3", "hreflang": "en-US"}], "numberMatched": 3, "numberReturned": 3, "distributedFeatures": [], "timeStamp": "2026-09-22T00:06:59.876259Z"}