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Updated: Jan 2, 2026
10:31
Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments
Published on: July 24, 2018
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Soil characteristics and land-use drive bacterial community assembly patterns
Samuel E Barnett1, Nicholas D Youngblut1,2, Daniel H Buckley1
1School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, 306 Tower Road, Bradfield Hall, Ithaca, NY, USA 14853, Ithaca, NY, USA.
FEMS Microbiology Ecology
|December 14, 2019
Summary
Regional bacterial communities are shaped by dispersal from larger species pools and local environmental selection. Land use and soil pH interact to influence community assembly, impacting soil biodiversity across landscapes.
Area of Science:
- Soil Ecology
- Microbial Ecology
- Community Assembly
Background:
- Land use and soil properties are known drivers of soil microbial community composition.
- The influence of these factors on dispersal and regional-scale community assembly is not well understood.
- Disturbed soils often show stochastic assembly, suggesting regional influences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate bacterial community assembly at a regional scale.
- To determine the roles of land use and soil characteristics in shaping microbial communities.
- To assess the interplay between dispersal and local selection processes.
Main Methods:
- Examined bacterial communities across agricultural, old-field, and forested sites in 10 landscapes near Ithaca, New York.
- Utilized the Sloan neutral model to assess community assembly patterns.
- Analyzed the influence of soil pH and land-use regimes on community composition.
Main Results:
- The Sloan neutral model effectively explained regional bacterial community assembly (R² = 0.763).
- Soil pH and land use acted as significant selective pressures shaping community composition.
- Homogeneous selection related to soil pH and land use was dominant, with interactive effects observed.
Conclusions:
- Regional bacterial community assembly is driven by dispersal from regional species pools.
- Local selection, particularly influenced by soil pH and land-use-related soil characteristics, plays a critical role.
- Understanding these processes is key to managing soil microbial biodiversity across landscapes.
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