Composition of soil bacterial communities associated with urban stormwater detention basins and their predicted functional roles in N cycle.

This article focuses on characterizing soil bacterial communities in two urban stormwater detention basins located over the Edwards Aquifer in Bexar County, Texas, USA, and predicting their functional roles in nitrogen cycling. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and PICRUSt2 metagenomic prediction, the study found distinct microbial community compositions between the basins, with dominant phyla including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Planctomycetes. Soil physicochemical properties such as total organic carbon, particle size distribution, phosphorus, and ammonium showed significant correlations with microbial community structure and the relative abundance of nitrogen cycling genes. The findings suggest that microbial communities in stormwater basins contribute to nitrogen transformation processes, with implications for optimizing stormwater management and protecting urban water quality.