Temperature-dependent trophic associations modulate soil bacterial communities along latitudinal gradients.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the environmental and biological mechanisms shaping latitudinal patterns in microbial diversity is challenging in the field of ecology. Although multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain these patterns, a consensus has rarely been reached. Here, we conducted a large-scale field survey and microcosm experiments to investigate how environmental heterogeneity and putative trophic interactions (exerted by protist-bacteria associations and T4-like virus-bacteria associations) affect soil bacterial communities along a latitudinal gradient. We found that the microbial latitudinal diversity was kingdom dependent, showing decreasing, clumped, and increasing trends in bacteria, protists, and T4-like viruses, respectively. Climatic and edaphic drivers played predominant roles in

SUBMITTER: Huang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11334336 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature