Remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) affects microbial community diversity in ecosystems of different qualities

Soil microorganisms are key to ecological environment stability, but climate change and human activities exacerbate ecological environment changes. Therefore, assessment of ecological environment quality impacts on microbial diversity is needed. The Tarim River is the largest inland river in China and plays a crucial role in supporting regional biodiversity, maintaining ecological balance, and preventing desertification. In this study, we used the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index (RSEI) to assess the ecological quality of habitats in the Tarim River Basin and explore the effects of habitat quality (extreme, semi-extreme, and general) on the structural diversity of microbial (bacterial and fungal) communities, biogeographic patterns, co-occurrence networks, and community assembly processes. Study results show that soil physicochemical characteristics varied significantly with habitat quality; highly resilient microorganisms are more abundant in habitats with low ecological quality. RSEI affects changes in microbial communities, and the positive correlation ratio of the network is inversely proportional to RSEI. The interspecific relationships of microbial communities in the Tarim River Basin are dominated by positive correlations, and community assembly is strongly influenced by stochastic processes. RSEI directly affects soil microbial diversity, with its contribution to both bacterial and fungal diversity being 0.27. Total nitrogen (TN) also directly affects microbial diversity, with effects of 0.11 on bacteria and 0.07 on fungi, respectively. This study provides scientific evidence and technical support for understanding microbial diversity in environments and for the development of regional sustainable development policies.