Wildfire-associated changes in bacterial profiles of annual and perennial plants in the Amankaragai pine forest

IntroductionWildfires impact the soil- and plant-associated bacterial communities both directly through temperature shifts and indirectly by altering the physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, knowledge of post-fire soil- and plant-associated bacterial communities in Kazakhstan’s strongly continental climate, with pronounced seasonal variability, remains limited. The aim of this study is to investigate how wildfire shapes the diversity of plant-associated bacterial communities a