Environmental Heterogeneity Drives Distinct Spatial Distribution Patterns of Microbial Co-Occurring Species Across Different Grassland Types

TL;DR

This study shows how different grassland types influence the spatial distribution of soil microbes, with environmental differences playing a key role.

Contribution

The study reveals novel scale-dependent microbial biogeographic patterns across grassland types linked to environmental heterogeneity.

Findings

Alpine steppe and meadow show higher microbial spatial turnover compared to temperate steppe.

Co-occurring microbial richness trends vary with grassland type and sampling area.

Prokaryotic assembly is more stochastic, while fungal assembly is more deterministic, influenced by niche and migration differences.

Abstract

Grasslands, as dominant terrestrial ecosystems, significantly influence soil microbial communities through alterations in soil properties. However, their effects on spatial patterns of soil microbial communities are still under-investigated. To address this, we quantified taxa–area (TAR) and node–area (NAR) relationships for prokaryotic and fungal communities across temperate steppe (TS), alpine steppe (AS), and alpine meadow (AM). Our findings indicated that the spatial turnover of both prokaryotic and fungal communities were higher in alpine steppe and alpine meadow than in temperate steppe, mirroring the gradient of soil environmental heterogeneity. Notably, overall species richness increased logarithmically with sampling area in all grasslands; in striking contrast, co-occurring richness exhibited an increasing and then decreasing trend in AS and AM, but declined monotonically in TS, indicating that microbial interaction networks collapse once a critical spatial threshold is exceeded regulated by ecosystem type and environmental heterogeneity. In growing season, the stochastic dominance in prokaryotic assembly (Normalized stochasticity ratio = 0.71–0.89) and deterministic dominance in fungal assembly (Normalized stochasticity ratio = 0.23–0.37) can be explained by their differences in niche breadth and migration rate. These scale-dependent biogeographic patterns demonstrate that grassland type impacts distinct interactions and spatial patterns of microbial communities. These findings provide novel insights into a comprehensive understanding of how grassland type mediates soil microbial community.

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