Soil human pathogens in rapid urbanization areas: occurrence, distribution, and potential risk

Rapid urbanization has substantially changed the soil environment, causing changes in the composition and distribution of soil pathogens. However, critical knowledge gaps persist regarding soil human pathogens in urban regions which are characterized by intensive human-environment interactions. This issue has become urgent amid growing public attention on environmental health and public health events. Utilizing field monitoring, high-throughput sequencing, and geospatial analysis, this study provides the first systematic assessment of human-associated soil pathogens distribution across a typical urban agglomeration in north China. There were 16 major human-pathogenic species identified in soils, with Stenotrophomonas predominating (detected in 57.00% of samples). Significant differences were observed in both abundance and species of soil human pathogens as well as network structure from urban to rural areas, and peri-urban areas can be identified as contamination hotspots. Results of showed that socioeconomic factors accounted for 34.5% of soil human pathogens distribution variability, particularly facility agriculture distribution and cropland fragmentation. Furthermore, we developed an innovation risk assessment framework with considering 12 indicators encompassing abundance and species number of soil human pathogens, network structure, and human exposure parameters to quantify urban-rural exposure risks of human pathogens. The evaluated results demonstrated elevated risks in peri-urban areas, with children being more susceptible than adults to threats posed by soil human pathogens in urban areas. This study provides an innovative approach for quantifying risk of soil human pathogens and scientific guidance for preventing soil human pathogens contamination and enhancing soil health in rapid urbanization areas.