Interspecies interactions have a profound influence on spatial distribution of coexisting microbial species. We explored whether spatial variance of species distribution (SVSD) predicts the degree of interspecies interactions within a microbial metacommunity. Simulations were used to determine the relationships from random, lake, soil, and biofilm metacommunity datasets (1,000 times). All of the bacterial datasets showed a negative correlation between the habitat breadth (inverse to SVSD) and the numbers of total, positive, and negative interspecies interactions (P < 0.05); the only exception was the relationship between habitat breadth and negative interactions in the biofilm dataset. The random dataset had no significant relationships (P > 0.05). We repeated the simulations to determine the degree of correlation and reproducibility (100 times). Habitat breadth was negatively correlated with the total and positive interactions in all of the real datasets (P < 0.05), and the negative relationships persisted across repetitions. Despite variability in the slope of total interactions, the slope values of positive interactions were similar for the real datasets (− 19.9, − 19.2, and − 25.8 for lake, soil, and biofilm, respectively). In conclusion, our results demonstrate the patterns of species interaction–distribution and show that interspecies interactions are positively correlated with the SVSD.

种间相互作用对共存微生物物种的空间分布产生深远影响。我们探讨了物种分布的空间变异性（SVSD）是否能预测微生物超群落内种间相互作用的程度。模拟用于确定随机，湖泊，土壤和生物膜超群落数据集之间的关系（1,000次）。所有细菌数据集都表明，生境的广度（与SVSD相反）与种间总，正和负种间相互作用的数量呈负相关（P  <0.05）。唯一的例外是生物膜数据集中栖息地宽度与负向相互作用之间的关系。随机数据集没有显着关系（P > 0.05）。我们重复模拟以确定相关程度和可重复性（100次）。生境广度与所有真实数据集的总体和正向交互作用呈负相关（P  <0.05），并且负向关系在重复过程中持续存在。尽管总交互作用的斜率有所变化，但实际数据集的正交互作用的斜率值相似（湖泊，土壤和生物膜分别为− 19.9，− 19.2和− 25.8）。总之，我们的结果证明了物种相互作用-分布的模式，并表明种间相互作用与SVSD正相关。