Until recently, our planet was thought to be home to ~ 107 species, largely belonging to plants and animals. Despite being the most abundant organisms on Earth, the contribution of microbial life to global biodiversity has been greatly underestimated and, in some cases, completely overlooked. Using a compilation of data known as the Global Prokaryotic Census (GPC), it was recently claimed that there are ~ 106 extant bacterial and archaeal taxa [1], an estimate that is orders of magnitude lower than predictions for global microbial biodiversity based on the lognormal model of biodiversity and diversity-abundance scaling laws [2]. Here, we resolve this discrepancy by 1) identifying violations of sampling theory, 2) correcting for the misuse of biodiversity theory, and 3) conducting a reanalysis of the GPC. By doing so, we uncovered greater support for diversity-abundance scaling laws and the lognormal model of biodiversity, which together predict that Earth is home to 1012 or more microbial taxa. This article was reviewed by Alvaro Sanchez and Sean M. Gibbons.

中文翻译：

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对地球大规模微生物组的更多支持

直到最近，我们的星球还被认为是约107种物种的家园，主要属于动植物。尽管微生物是地球上最丰富的生物，但微生物生命对全球生物多样性的贡献却被大大低估了，在某些情况下甚至被完全忽略了。最近，使用被称为全球原核普查（GPC）的数据的汇总，据称存在约106种现存的细菌和古细菌类群[1]，该估计数比基于该数据的全球微生物多样性预测要低几个数量级。生物多样性和多样性-丰度定律的对数正态模型[2]。在这里，我们通过以下方法解决这一差异：1）识别违反采样理论的行为，2）纠正对生物多样性理论的滥用，以及3）对GPC进行重新分析。通过这样做，我们发现了对多样性-丰富度定律和生物多样性的对数正态模型的更多支持，它们共同预测地球上有1012个或更多的微生物类群。本文由Alvaro Sanchez和Sean M. Gibbons审阅。