Different community assembly mechanisms underlie similar biogeography of bacteria and microeukaryotes in Tibetan lakes

Abstract

Geographic patterns of bacteria and microeukaryotes have attracted increasing attention. However, mechanisms underlying geographic patterns in the community composition of both microbial groups are still poorly resolved. In particular, knowledge of whether bacterial communities and microeukaryotic communities are subject to the same or different assembly mechanisms is still limited. In this study, we investigated the biogeographic patterns of bacterial and microeukaryotic communities of 23 lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and quantified the relative influence of assembly mechanisms in shaping both microbial communities. Results showed that water salinity was the major driving force in controlling the community structures of bacteria and microeukaryotes. Although bacterial and microeukaryotic communities exhibited similar distance-decay patterns, the bacterial communities were mainly governed by environmental filtering (a niche-related process), whereas microeukaryotic communities were strongly driven by dispersal limitation (a neutral-related process). Furthermore, we found that bacteria exhibited wider niche breadths and higher dispersal ability but lower community stabilities than microeukaryotes. The similar distribution patterns but contrasting assembly mechanisms effecting bacteria and microeukaryotes resulted from the differences in dispersal ability and community stability. Our results highlight the importance of considering organism types in studies of the assembly mechanisms that shape microbial communities in microbial ecology.