Turnover of soil bacterial diversity driven by wide-scale environmental heterogeneity

Abstract

Spatial scaling and determinism of the wide-scale distribution of macroorganism diversity has been largely demonstrated over a century. For microorganisms, and especially for soil bacteria, this fundamental question requires more thorough investigation, as little information has been reported to date. Here by applying the taxa-area relationship to the largest spatially explicit soil sampling available in France (2,085 soils, area covered ∼5.3 × 10 5 km 2) and developing an innovative evaluation of the habitat-area relationship, we show that the turnover rate of bacterial diversity in soils on a wide scale is highly significant and strongly correlated with the turnover rate of soil habitat. As the diversity of micro- and macroorganisms appears to be driven by similar processes (dispersal and selection), maintaining diverse and spatially structured habitats is essential for soil biological patrimony and the resulting ecosystem services. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited.