George Christaline, Kortheerakul Chananwat, Khunthong Nitthiya, Sharma Chitrabhanu, Luo Danli, Chan Kok-Gan, Daroch Maurycy, Hyde Kevin D, Lee Patrick K H, Goh Kian Mau, Waditee-Sirisattha Rungaroon, Pointing Stephen B
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117557, Singapore.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
Environ Microbiome. 2025 May 13;20(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s40793-025-00711-8.
Hot springs, with their well-characterized major abiotic variables and island-like habitats, are ideal systems for studying microbial biogeography. Photosynthetic biofilms are a major biological feature of hot springs but despite this large-scale studies are scarce, leaving critical questions about the drivers of spatial turnover unanswered. Here, we analysed 395 photosynthetic biofilms from neutral-alkaline hot springs (39-66 °C, pH 6.4-9.0) across a 2100 km latitudinal gradient in Southeast Asia. The Cyanobacteria-dominated communities were categorized into six biogeographic regions, each characterized by a distinct core microbiome and biotic interactions. We observed a significant decline in the explanatory power of major abiotic variables with increasing spatial scale, from 62.6% locally, 55% regionally, to 26.8% for the inter-regional meta-community. Statistical null models revealed that deterministic environmental filtering predominated at local and regional scales, whereas stochastic ecological drift was more influential at the inter-regional scale. These findings enhance our understanding of the differential contribution of ecological drivers and highlight the importance of spatial scale in shaping biogeographic distributions for microorganisms.
温泉具有特征明确的主要非生物变量和类似岛屿的栖息地，是研究微生物生物地理学的理想系统。光合生物膜是温泉的主要生物学特征，但尽管如此，大规模研究却很匮乏，关于空间更替驱动因素的关键问题仍未得到解答。在此，我们分析了东南亚2100公里纬度梯度上中性 - 碱性温泉（39 - 66°C，pH 6.4 - 9.0）中的395个光合生物膜。以蓝藻为主导的群落被分为六个生物地理区域，每个区域都有独特的核心微生物组和生物相互作用特征。我们观察到，随着空间尺度的增加，主要非生物变量的解释力显著下降，从局部的62.6%、区域的55%降至区域间元群落的26.8%。统计零模型显示，确定性环境过滤在局部和区域尺度上占主导地位，而随机生态漂变在区域间尺度上更具影响力。这些发现增进了我们对生态驱动因素差异贡献的理解，并突出了空间尺度在塑造微生物生物地理分布中的重要性。
