scholarly journals Deterministic processes dominate soil microbial community assembly in subalpine coniferous forests on the Loess Plateau

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengyu Zhao ◽  
Jiabing Bao ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Cui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Coniferous Forests ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Deterministic Processes ◽  
Microbial Community Assembly

Microbial community assembly is influenced by a continuum (actually the trade-off) between deterministic and stochastic processes. An understanding of this ecological continuum is of great significance for drawing inferences about the effects of community assembly processes on microbial community structure and function. Here, we investigated the driving forces of soil microbial community assembly in three different environmental contexts located on subalpine coniferous forests of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, China. The variation in null deviations and phylogenetic analysis showed that a continuum existed between deterministic and stochastic processes in shaping the microbial community structure, but deterministic processes prevailed. By integrating the results of redundancy analysis (RDA), multiple regression tree (MRT) analysis and correlation analysis, we found that soil organic carbon (SOC) was the main driver of the community structure and diversity patterns. In addition, we also found that SOC had a great influence on the community assembly processes. In conclusion, our results show that deterministic processes always dominated assembly processes in shaping bacterial community structure along the three habitat contexts.

scholarly journals Multiple ecological processes jointly drive the soil microbial community assembly in subalpine coniferous forests

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengyu Zhao ◽  
Jiabing Bao ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Cui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Stochastic Processes ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Analytical Methods ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Coniferous Forests ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Microbial Community Assembly

The mechanisms underlying community dynamics, which govern the complicated biogeographical patterns of microbes, have long been a research hotspot in community ecology. However, the mixing of multiple ecological processes and the one-sidedness of analytical methods make it difficult to draw inferences about the community assembly mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the driving forces of the soil microbial community in subalpine coniferous forests of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, China, by integrating multiple analytical methods. The results of the null model demonstrated that deterministic processes (especially interspecific relationships) were the main driving force of the soil microbial community assembly in this study area, relative to stochastic processes. Based on the results of the net relatedness index (NRI) and nearest taxon index (NTI), we inferred that historical and evolutionary factors, such as climate change and local diversification, may have similar effects on microbial community structure based on the climatic niche conservatism. Based on the results of a functional traits analysis, we found that the effects of ongoing ecological processes on the microbial community assembly varied among sites. Therefore, the functional structures seemed to be more related to ongoing ecological processes, whereas the phylogenetic structures seemed to be more related to historical and evolutionary factors, as well as the tradeoff between deterministic and stochastic processes. The functional and phylogenetic structures were mainly shaped by different ecological processes. By integrating multiple ecological processes, our results provide more details of the mechanisms driving the community assembly

scholarly journals Multiple ecological processes jointly drive the soil microbial community assembly in subalpine coniferous forests

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengyu Zhao ◽  
Jiabing Bao ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Cui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Stochastic Processes ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Analytical Methods ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Coniferous Forests ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Microbial Community Assembly

The mechanisms underlying community dynamics, which govern the complicated biogeographical patterns of microbes, have long been a research hotspot in community ecology. However, the mixing of multiple ecological processes and the one-sidedness of analytical methods make it difficult to draw inferences about the community assembly mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the driving forces of the soil microbial community in subalpine coniferous forests of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, China, by integrating multiple analytical methods. The results of the null model demonstrated that deterministic processes (especially interspecific relationships) were the main driving force of the soil microbial community assembly in this study area, relative to stochastic processes. Based on the results of the net relatedness index (NRI) and nearest taxon index (NTI), we inferred that historical and evolutionary factors, such as climate change and local diversification, may have similar effects on microbial community structure based on the climatic niche conservatism. Based on the results of a functional traits analysis, we found that the effects of ongoing ecological processes on the microbial community assembly varied among sites. Therefore, the functional structures seemed to be more related to ongoing ecological processes, whereas the phylogenetic structures seemed to be more related to historical and evolutionary factors, as well as the tradeoff between deterministic and stochastic processes. The functional and phylogenetic structures were mainly shaped by different ecological processes. By integrating multiple ecological processes, our results provide more details of the mechanisms driving the community assembly

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