Biogeography and ecological diversity patterns of rare and abundant bacteria in oil-contaminated soils

Revealing the biogeographies and ecologies of rare and abundant microorganisms is crucial to understand ecosystem diversity and function. In this study, we investigated the biogeographic assemblies and ecological diversity patterns of rare and abundant bacteria in long-term oil-contaminated soils at intervals of 46-360 km by performing high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. The results clearly revealed distinct distribution patterns for rare and abundant bacteria in soil samples. Rare taxa were unevenly distributed; however, abundant taxa were ubiquitous across all samples. Both rare and abundant subcommunities showed significant distance-decay relationships, and their assemblies were driven by different factors. The rare subcommunity primarily exhibited a spatially structured distribution (i.e., stochastic processes), while edaphic factors (i.e., deterministic processes) largely contributed to the structure of the abundant subcommunity. A network analysis revealed closer relationships between abundant bacteria and their heightened influence on other co-occurrences in the community compared with rare species. In conclusion, rare microbial taxa may play potential roles in maintaining ecosystem diversity, although they do not appear to be central to microbial networks. Abundant microbes are vital for microbial co-occurrences in oil-contaminated soils, and high relative abundance and ubiquitous distribution suggest potential roles in the degradation of organic pollutants.