Stochastic and deterministic processes interact in the assembly of desert microbial communities on a global scale.

ABSTRACT: Extreme arid regions in the worlds' major deserts are typified by quartz pavement terrain. Cryptic hypolithic communities colonize the ventral surface of quartz rocks and this habitat is characterized by a relative lack of environmental and trophic complexity. Combined with readily identifiable major environmental stressors this provides a tractable model system for determining the relative role of stochastic and deterministic drivers in community assembly. Through analyzing an original, worldwide data set of 16S rRNA-gene defined bacterial communities from the most extreme deserts on the Earth, we show that functional assemblages within the communities were subject to different assembly influences. Null models applied to the photosynthetic assemblage revealed that stochastic processes exe

SUBMITTER: Caruso T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3160679 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature