Community Assembly Mechanisms Facilitate Understanding of Microbial Responses to Habitat Transition along a Spatial Environmental Continuum in Alpine Plateaus
- 1Department of Biotechnology, Aulin College, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 China
- 2Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Key Laboratory of Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management-Ministry of Education, School of Ecology, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 China
Abstract
While soil microorganisms mediate important ecosystem functions, their community assembly mechanisms along a spatially connected environmental continuum remain elusive. Here, we profiled the taxonomic and functional characteristics of soil microbiomes across three independent wetland-grassland-bareland continua on the Pamir Plateau. Along this spatial environmental continuum, microbial diversity, network complexity, and network stability decreased significantly towards barelands. Null model analyses revealed a pronounced shift in community assembly within barelands, characterized by increased heterogeneous selection and dispersal limitation. This assembly shift, potentially associated with water limitation and salt stress, may contribute to the diminished diversity and network robustness. Notably, predicted soil microbial functional potential peaked in grasslands, likely reflecting enhanced plant-soil feedbacks. By linking community properties to predicted functionality, we demonstrated that microbial diversity, rather than network complexity, was more strongly associated with variation in predicted soil microbial functional potential. Ultimately, these findings provide a mechanistic understanding of microbial community assembly and functional transition in sensitive alpine ecosystems.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8.
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BibTeX
@article{wang2026community,
title = {{Community Assembly Mechanisms Facilitate Understanding of Microbial Responses to Habitat Transition along a Spatial Environmental Continuum in Alpine Plateaus}},
author = {Wenrui Wang and Changjiang Huang and Congrui Liu},
journal = {Microbial Ecology},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Community Assembly Mechanisms Facilitate Understanding of Microbial Responses to Habitat Transition along a Spatial Environmental Continuum in Alpine Plateaus
AU - Wenrui Wang
AU - Changjiang Huang
AU - Congrui Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/29
JO - Microbial Ecology
DO - 10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8
AB - While soil microorganisms mediate important ecosystem functions, their community assembly mechanisms along a spatially connected environmental continuum remain elusive. Here, we profiled the taxonomic and functional characteristics of soil microbiomes across three independent wetland-grassland-bareland continua on the Pamir Plateau. Along this spatial environmental continuum, microbial diversity, network complexity, and network stability decreased significantly towards barelands. Null model analyses revealed a pronounced shift in community assembly within barelands, characterized by increased heterogeneous selection and dispersal limitation. This assembly shift, potentially associated with water limitation and salt stress, may contribute to the diminished diversity and network robustness. Notably, predicted soil microbial functional potential peaked in grasslands, likely reflecting enhanced plant-soil feedbacks. By linking community properties to predicted functionality, we demonstrated that microbial diversity, rather than network complexity, was more strongly associated with variation in predicted soil microbial functional potential. Ultimately, these findings provide a mechanistic understanding of microbial community assembly and functional transition in sensitive alpine ecosystems. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-026-02846-8.
SN - 0095-3628
SN - 1432-184X
ER -