Desert-like areas located in the eastern portion of the state of Utah (USA) have geographic features that can resemble the surface of the planet Mars, characterized by red-colored hills, soils and sandstones. We examined the bacterial biodiversity of surface soil samples from several sites from the Colorado Plateau Desert in eastern Utah using pyrosequencing of PCR amplified bacterial 16S rRNA genes from total extracted soil DNA. The sample sites cover the Great Basin, Goblin Valley State Park and nearby regions on the Colorado Plateau. We also examined several physicochemical parameters of the soil samples to investigate any possible correlations between bacterial community structure and environmental drivers. The predominant bacterial phyla present in the samples were found to belong to members of the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Gemmatimonadetes. The most abundant genera in our samples were found to belong to the Cesiribacter, Lysobacter, Adhaeribacter, Microvirga and Pontibacter genera. We found that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes were significantly correlated with soil pH and a low concentration of organic matter, suggesting that, in these relatively high-altitude desert soils, these two parameters may be of primary importance to influence bacterial community composition.

位于犹他州（美国）东部的类似沙漠地区具有类似于火星表面的地理特征，其特征是红色的山丘、土壤和砂岩。我们使用从总提取的土壤 DNA 中 PCR 扩增的细菌 16S rRNA 基因的焦磷酸测序，检查了来自犹他州东部科罗拉多高原沙漠几个地点的表层土壤样品的细菌生物多样性。样本地点包括大盆地、地精谷州立公园和科罗拉多高原附近的地区。我们还检查了土壤样品的几个物理化学参数，以研究细菌群落结构与环境驱动因素之间的任何可能相关性。发现样本中存在的主要细菌门属于Proteobacteria、放线菌、Bacteroidetes和Gemmatimonadetes。发现我们样品中最丰富的属属于Cesiribacter、Lysobacter、Adhaeribacter、Microvirga和Pontibacter属。我们发现Proteobacteria和Gemmatimonadetes的相对丰度与土壤 pH 值和低有机质浓度显着相关，这表明，在这些海拔较高的沙漠土壤中，这两个参数可能对影响细菌群落组成至关重要。