Distinct assembly mechanisms underlie similar biogeographical patterns of rare and abundant bacteria in Tibetan Plateau grassland soils

• DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.14993
• Publication Date: 2020-03-26T04:30:20Z
• Authors: Mukan Ji; Weidong Kong; James Stegen; Linyan Yue; Fei Wang; Xiaobin Dong; Don A Cowan; Belinda C Ferrari
• Keywords: Rare species

Summary Rare biosphere represents the majority of Earth's biodiversity and performs vital ecological functions, yet little is known about its biogeographical patterns community assembly processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Herein, we investigated composition phylogeny rare (relative abundance <0.1%) abundant (>1%) bacteria dryland grassland soils on Tibetan Plateau. Results revealed similar at both compositional phylogenetic levels, but subcommunity was more heavily influenced by stochasticity (72%) than (57%). The variation less explained environmental factors (41%) that (80%), while (36%) (29%). equally local (soil vegetation) geospatial distance (11.5% 11.9% respectively), (22.1%) (11.3%). Furthermore, a substantially tighter connection between observed ( R 2 = 0.65) 0.08). Our study provides novel insights into biographical soils.