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Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments
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Phylogenetic beta diversity in bacterial assemblages across ecosystems: deterministic versus stochastic processes.

Jianjun Wang1, Ji Shen, Yucheng Wu

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China. JJWang@niglas.ac.cn

The ISME Journal
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Microbial communities are shaped by deterministic processes, not random chance. Bacteria exhibit strong habitat associations, indicating adaptation to specific environments across diverse ecosystems.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbial Ecology
  • Community Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Non-random spatial distributions of microbes are increasingly evident, yet the drivers of microbial assemblage variation across ecosystems remain unclear.
  • Studies present conflicting views: some emphasize deterministic processes like habitat specialization, while others highlight stochastic forces in bacterial community assembly.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes on bacterial communities across various habitats.
  • To infer community assembly processes by analyzing phylogenetic signal and turnover patterns in relation to environmental variables.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene to analyze bacterial communities.
  • Examined phylogenetic signal in ecological niches and phylogenetic turnover rates across subsurface environments, stream biofilm, lake water, lake sediment, and soil.
  • Applied statistical analyses, including partial Mantel tests, to assess the impact of spatial and environmental variables on community composition.

Main Results:

  • Bacterial communities exhibited significant phylogenetic dissimilarities among habitat types and clustered according to their original environments.
  • Phylogenetic turnover rates varied spatially, with subsurface environments showing the highest and regional sediment assemblages the lowest.
  • Environmental variables imposed strong selection on bacterial communities, with spatial distance often reflecting unmeasured environmental factors.

Conclusions:

  • Deterministic processes play a dominant role in shaping bacterial assemblages.
  • Bacteria demonstrate strong habitat associations, likely resulting from evolutionary adaptation to specific environments.