Autotrophs, such as cyanobacteria, algae, and prokaryotic non-cyanobacterial autotrophs, play fundamental roles in biocrust development by adhering to soil particles and fixing CO₂. The variation in autotrophic community structure, in particular that of prokaryotic non-cyanobacterial autotrophs, and the factors driving this variation during biocrust succession have not been revealed. In this study, we investigated the autotrophic communities in bare sand and three biocrust successional stages in the Gurbantunggut Desert by assessing the cbbL gene, which encodes the form I ribulose1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) large subunit. The cbbL gene profiles demonstrated that the abundance of cyanobacteria and algae (form IAB, 10⁵–10⁷ copies g⁻¹ soil) and prokaryotic non-cyanobacterial autotrophs (form IC, ~10⁷ copies g⁻¹ soil) changed significantly as succession progressed. Stepwise multiple regression showed that soil water, organic carbon, total phosphorous, available potassium content and pH explained 95.7% of the variation in cyanobacterial and algal (form IAB) abundance. Soil water content explained 60.1% of the variation in prokaryotic non-cyanobacterial autotroph (form IC) abundance. Variation partitioning analysis showed that the variation in form IC community structure was related to soil nutrients (C, N, and P), ion content (Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and Ca²⁺) and physical soil properties (86.1% explained). The variation in form IAB community structure could be predictable by total potassium, total organic carbon and Na⁺ and Mg²⁺ content (37.1% explained). Our results showed significant shifts in both autotrophic abundance and community structure, and highlighted the combined effects of soil factors on autotrophic community variation during biocrust succession.

诸如蓝细菌，藻类和原核非蓝细菌自养生物等自养生物通过附着在土壤颗粒上并固定CO ₂在生物结壳的发展中起着基本作用。自养群落结构的变化，特别是原核非蓝细菌自养生物的变化，以及在生物结壳演替过程中驱动这种变化的因素尚未发现。在这项研究中，我们通过评估cbbL基因（其编码I型核糖1,5-双磷酸羧化酶/加氧酶（RuBisCO）大亚基）的cbbL基因，研究了古尔班通古特沙漠中裸砂和三个生物结壳演替阶段的自养群落。所述cbbL基因概况表明，蓝藻的丰度和藻类（形式IAB，10 ⁵–10 ⁷份g ^-1土壤）和原核非蓝细菌自养生物（IC形式，〜10 ⁷份g ^-1土壤）随着演替的进行而发生了显着变化。逐步多元回归分析表明，土壤水，有机碳，总磷，有效钾含量和pH值可解释蓝细菌和藻类（IAB形式）丰度变化的95.7％。土壤含水量解释了原核非蓝细菌自养生物（形态IC）丰度变化的60.1％。变异分区分析表明，形态IC群落结构的变异与土壤养分（C，N和P），离子含量（Mg 2 ⁺，Na ⁺和Ca ^{2+）有关。}）和土壤物理性质（解释为86.1％）。可以通过总钾，总有机碳以及Na ⁺和Mg ²⁺含量（解释为37.1％）来预测IAB群落结构形式的变化。我们的研究结果表明自养生物的丰度和群落结构都发生了重大变化，并突出了土壤因素对生物结皮演替过程中自养生物群落变化的综合影响。