Summary This study coupled a landscape‐scale metagenomic survey of denitrification gene abundance in soils with in situ denitrification measurements to show how environmental factors shape distinct denitrification communities that exhibit varying denitrification activity. Across a hydrologic gradient, the distribution of total denitrification genes ( nap/nar + nirK/nirS + cNor/qNor + nosZ) inferred from metagenomic read abunda...