Valverde Angel, Makhalanyane Thulani P, Cowan Don A
Department of Genetics, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Genomics Research Institute, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
Front Microbiol. 2014 Dec 3;5:668. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00668. eCollection 2014.
Understanding the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes in driving community assembly is a major goal in microbial ecology. Here, we have investigated the influence of these processes on bacterial community assembly in the lateral sediments of a salt pan along a desiccation gradient over a three-year period. We show that the role of deterministic processes increases in communities distant from the water line (shaped by drought), probably as a result of the interplay between abiotic and biotic factors. By contrast, the influence of stochastic processes on bacterial community assembly was higher in the sediments closest to the water line, more likely due to lower levels of abiotic stress. Our results demonstrate that both deterministic and stochastic processes influence bacterial community assembly in salt pan sediments, and that their relative influence varies along a desiccation gradient.
了解确定性和随机性过程在驱动群落组装中的相对影响是微生物生态学的一个主要目标。在这里，我们研究了这些过程对盐田横向沉积物中细菌群落组装的影响，该盐田沿着干燥梯度历时三年。我们发现，在远离水线（受干旱影响）的群落中，确定性过程的作用增强，这可能是由于非生物和生物因素之间的相互作用。相比之下，随机性过程对细菌群落组装的影响在最靠近水线的沉积物中更高，这更可能是由于非生物胁迫水平较低。我们的结果表明，确定性和随机性过程都影响盐田沉积物中的细菌群落组装，并且它们的相对影响沿干燥梯度而变化。
