Cheng Yi-Ting, Deng Wei, Yang Xiao-Yan, Tan Kun, Xiao Wen
Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research Dali University Dali Yunnan China.
Collaborative Innovation Center for Biodiversity and Conservation in the Three Parallel Rivers Region of China Dali Yunnan China.
Ecol Evol. 2025 May 7;15(5):e71428. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71428. eCollection 2025 May.
The effect of founders (the potential influence of initially colonizing species on the composition, functionality, and stability of communities) plays a crucial role in community assembly; many experimental studies on priority effects or artificially assembled species have suggested the existence of this effect, but direct experimental evidence at the community level remains limited. This study used sterilized and nonsterilized paocai soup (a traditional Chinese fermented vegetable soup) from the same source to simulate initial environments with and without founders. These were placed in beakers with varying opening sizes on an open rooftop for 15 days to explore the impact of founders on community assembly under different dispersal intensities. The 16S rRNA sequencing analysis revealed that communities with founders exhibited lower species richness (320) compared to communities without founders (645). Additionally, communities with founders showed reduced species turnover and richness variation (53.7%) compared to communities without founders (60.9%). Furthermore, the average variability degree (AVD) in communities with founders (0.446 ± 0.044) was significantly lower than in communities without founders (0.927 ± 0.466), indicating higher community stability. Finally, deterministic processes dominated communities with founders (with heterogeneous selection contributing 70%), whereas stochastic processes primarily governed communities without founders (homogeneous dispersal 10% and undominated processes 70%). These findings demonstrate that founders presence reduces dispersal impacts, decreases community diversity, enhances stability, and deterministic processes. The effect of founders fundamentally shapes the direction of community assembly. This study helps further understanding of how founders influence biodiversity maintenance and community assembly processes.
奠基者效应（即最初定殖的物种对群落的组成、功能和稳定性的潜在影响）在群落构建中起着关键作用；许多关于优先效应或人工组装物种的实验研究都表明了这种效应的存在，但在群落水平上的直接实验证据仍然有限。本研究使用来自同一来源的经过灭菌和未灭菌的泡菜汤（一种中国传统发酵蔬菜汤）来模拟有和没有奠基者的初始环境。将它们放置在开放屋顶上开口大小不同的烧杯中15天，以探索奠基者在不同扩散强度下对群落构建的影响。16S rRNA测序分析表明，有奠基者的群落与没有奠基者的群落相比，物种丰富度较低（320种对645种）。此外，有奠基者的群落与没有奠基者的群落相比，物种周转率和丰富度变化降低（53.7%对60.9%）。此外，有奠基者的群落的平均变异度（AVD）（0.446±0.044）显著低于没有奠基者的群落（0.927±0.466），表明群落稳定性更高。最后，确定性过程在有奠基者的群落中占主导（异质性选择贡献70%），而随机过程主要支配没有奠基者的群落（均匀扩散10%，未支配过程70%）。这些发现表明，奠基者的存在减少了扩散影响，降低了群落多样性，增强了稳定性，并主导了确定性过程。奠基者效应从根本上塑造了群落构建的方向。本研究有助于进一步理解奠基者如何影响生物多样性维持和群落构建过程。
