BACKGROUND Resident soil microbiota play key roles in sustaining the core ecosystem processes of terrestrial Antarctica, often involving unique taxa with novel functional traits. However, the full scope of biodiversity and the niche-neutral processes underlying these communities remain unclear. In this study, we combine multivariate analyses, co-occurrence networks and fitted species abundance distributions on an extensive set of bacterial, micro-eukaryote and archaeal amplicon sequencing data to unravel soil microbiome patterns of nine sites across two east Antarctic regions, the Vestfold Hills and Windmill Islands. To our knowledge, this is the first microbial biodiversity report on the hyperarid Vestfold Hills soil environment. RESULTS Our findings reveal distinct regional differences in phylogenetic composition, abundance and richness amongst microbial taxa. Actinobacteria dominated soils in both regions, yet Bacteroidetes were more abundant in the Vestfold Hills compared to the Windmill Islands, which contained a high abundance of novel phyla. However, intra-region comparisons demonstrate greater homogeneity of soil microbial communities and measured environmental parameters between sites at the Vestfold Hills. Community richness is largely driven by a variable suite of parameters but robust associations between co-existing members highlight potential interactions and sharing of niche space by diverse taxa from all three microbial domains of life examined. Overall, non-neutral processes appear to structure the polar soil microbiomes studied here, with niche partitioning being particularly strong for bacterial communities at the Windmill Islands. Eukaryotic and archaeal communities reveal weaker niche-driven signatures accompanied by multimodality, suggesting the emergence of neutrality. CONCLUSION We provide new information on assemblage patterns, environmental drivers and non-random occurrences for Antarctic soil microbiomes, particularly the Vestfold Hills, where basic diversity, ecology and life history strategies of resident microbiota are largely unknown. Greater understanding of these basic ecological concepts is a pivotal step towards effective conservation management.

中文翻译：

---

在干旱到超高的南极土壤微生物群上揭开面纱：两个绿洲的故事。

背景技术常驻土壤微生物群在维持陆地南极洲核心生态系统过程中起着关键作用，通常涉及具有新功能特征的独特类群。但是，目前尚不清楚生物多样性的全部范围以及这些社区所处的生态位中立过程。在这项研究中，我们结合多变量分析，共现网络和合适的物种丰度分布，对广泛的细菌，微型真核生物和古细菌扩增子测序数据进行研究，以揭示南极东部两个地区（韦斯特福尔山）的九个地点的土壤微生物组模式和风车群岛。据我们所知，这是关于超干旱韦斯特富尔希尔斯土壤环境的第一份微生物多样性报告。结果我们的发现揭示了系统发育组成上明显的区域差异，微生物分类中的丰富度和丰富度。放线菌是这两个地区的主要土壤，但是与风车群岛相比，维斯特福德山的拟杆菌属含量更高，风车群岛拥有大量的新门。但是，区域内的比较表明，土壤微生物群落具有更高的同质性，并且在Vestfold Hills的站点之间测量了环境参数。社区的富裕程度主要由一组可变的参数驱动，但并存成员之间的牢固关联突出显示了来自所研究的所有三个微生物领域的不同分类群的潜在相互作用和利基空间的共享。总体而言，非中性过程似乎构成了本文研究的极地土壤微生物群落的结构，对于风车群岛的细菌群落而言，生态位的分配尤其强烈。真核生物和古细菌群落显示出较弱的利基驱动特征，并伴有多种形式，表明出现了中性。结论我们提供了有关南极土壤微生物群落，尤其是维斯特福德山（Vestfold Hills）的组装模式，环境驱动因素和非随机事件的新信息，在该地区居民微生物群的基本多样性，生态学和生活史策略尚不清楚。对这些基本生态概念的深入了解是朝着有效的保护管理迈出的关键一步。居民微生物群的基本多样性，生态和生活史策略在很大程度上是未知的。对这些基本生态学概念的深入了解是朝着有效的保护管理迈出的关键一步。居民微生物群的基本多样性，生态和生活史策略在很大程度上是未知的。对这些基本生态学概念的深入了解是朝着有效的保护管理迈出的关键一步。