Dispersal limitation relative to environmental filtering governs the vertical small‐scale assembly of soil microbiomes during restoration

Abstract

1. Uncovering the plant-soil feedback mechanisms underlying the assembly of belowground microbial communities is essential for terrestrial biodiversity conservation. However, little is known about the small-scale spatial assembly processes of distinct soil microorganisms, especially during natural restoration of ex-arable ecosystems.2. We examined the spatial structure of soil microbiomes in arable land and reforested soils to elucidate the underlying assembly processes at a small spatial scale.The analysis was based on a MiSeq sequencing database, detecting the diversity of archaeal, bacterial and fungal communities, simultaneously, from 300 soil samples along vertical and horizontal profiles during 30-year reforestation.3. Compared with environmental filtering, dispersal limitation made crucial contributions to microbial community assembly. Archaeal and bacterial communities with a wider niche breadth were governed more by dispersal limitation than were fungal communities.4. The effect of dispersal limitation on archaeal and bacterial communities increased first and then decreased over time, while the effect on fungi temporally increased. Synthesis and applications.Our results highlight the variation of assembly processes governing distinct soil microbiomes during reforestation, with dispersal limitation playing a prominent role. This finding suggests that the increase in soil microbial diversity during natural restoration is mainly due to the stochastic influx and dispersal of microorganisms. This greater understanding of microbial community assembly can contribute to more targeted and efficient environmental management practices for the restoration of terrestrial ecosystems, for example, by promoting the restoration practices and shortening the restoration period. These practices may thus be incorporated into policies developed for effective biodiversity conservation, especially the restoration and maintenance of subsurface soil microbial diversity and associated functions. K E Y W O R D S community assembly, dispersal limitation, ecological restoration, reforestation, small spatial scale, soil microbial diversity, subsurface microbiomes, terrestrial ecosystems | 403 Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Chen W, Jiao S, Li Q, Du N. Dispersal limitation relative to environmental filtering governs the vertical small-scale assembly of soil microbiomes during restoration. J Appl Ecol. 2020;57:402-412. https ://doi.

Archaeal and bacterial communities assembly and co-occurrence networks in subtropical mangrove sediments under Spartina alterniflora invasion

“…First, S. alterniflora invasion could influence microbial composition and diversity (Fig. S5 ), because different archaeal and bacterial taxa had specific ability for dispersal [ 25 ], thus S. alterniflora invasion changed the contribution of stochasticity in shaping sediment microbial community. Indeed, Chen et al (2019) has confirmed different dispersal ability for archaea and bacteria.…”

“…They observed a significant decay of community similarity with the vertical spatial distance for the archaeal, bacterial and fungal communities in soil habitats. However, the slopes of their vertical spatial decay curves were steepest for archaea, followed by fungi and bacteria, indicating that archaea showed strongest Distance-Decay and weakest dispersal [ 25 ]. Our neutral community model analysis also found that bacteria and archaea had different migration rate ( m ) or dispersal abilities (Fig.…”

“…We focus on comparing the ecological distribution patterns and co-occurrence of bacteria and archaea, meanwhile, explore S. alterniflora invasion on the community assembly and microbial interaction. Considering the difference of diversity, abundance, dispersal ability and environmental tolerance of archaea and bacteria [ 25 ], we firstly hypothesize that the community assembly and co-occurrence network patterns are different between these two groups. In addressing this hypothesis, we compare the overall archaeal and bacterial community assembly and co-occurrence patterns.…”

Vertical distribution of microbial communities and their response to metal(loid)s along the vadose zone–aquifer sediments

“…Body size has been found to determine the dispersal ability and spatial aggregation of macroorganisms (Chen et al . 2020). The main part of the fungal body presented in soil as mycelium, usually with a diameter ranging from 5 to 50 μm.…”

Organism body size structures the soil microbial and nematode community assembly at a continental and global scale

“…Variation partitioning analysis was conducted to tease apart the relative importance of environmental factors and spatial factors on variation in microorganism communities. Spatial variables were derived from Moran’s eigenvector maps 60 , 61 . Briefly, we first conducted a forward selection analysis to select those environmental and spatial variables that were significantly linked with the community composition of different soil organisms.…”