Spatial heterogeneity dominates bacterial biogeography in the surface waters from the South China Sea by structuring environmental gradients.

ABSTRACT: Studies in environmental bacterial communities are updating our view of the powerful small-scale environmental pressures governing the bacterial community assembly. However, it remains unclear about the processes acting at broader scales, such as the thousand-kilometer scale and highly connected marine habitats. We employed a high-coverage sampling strategy combined with 16S rRNA gene sequencing to investigate the biogeography, assembly mechanisms, and co-occurrence relationships of bacterial communities in the surface waters from the intensively human-affected coasts to the open ocean of the South China Sea. Results revealed a clear geographical clustering of both environmental factors and bacterial communities from a semi-enclosed bay of the Beibu Gulf (BG), a coastal sea area of the Gua

SUBMITTER: Xie C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12403860 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature