Ecological studies are aligned along a realism–precision continuum ranging from field observations to controlled lab experiments that each have their own strengths and limitations. Ecological insight may be most robust when combining approaches. In field observations along a successional gradient, we found correlations between plant species composition and soil bacterial communities, while bacterial Shannon diversity was unrelated to vegetation characteristics. To add a causal understanding of the processes of bacterial community assembly, we designed lab experiments to specifically test the influence of plant composition on bacterial communities. Using soil and seeds from our field site, we added different combinations of surface-sterilised seeds to homogenised soil samples in microcosms and analysed bacterial communities 4 months later. Our results confirmed the field observations suggesting that experimental plant community composition shaped bacterial community composition, while Shannon diversity was unaffected. These results reflect intimate plant–bacteria interactions that are important drivers of plant health and community assembly. While this study provided insights into the role of plants underlying the assembly of bacterial communities, we did not experimentally manipulate other drivers of community assembly such as abiotic factors. Therefore, we recommend multi-factorial laboratory experiments to quantify the relative importance of different factors contributing to microbial composition.

中文翻译：

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增加实验精度以增强实地观察的真实性：植物群落在冰川前场构建细菌群落

生态研究遵循现实精确的连续统一体，从现场观察到受控实验室实验，每个都有自己的优点和局限性。当结合多种方法时，生态洞察力可能是最强大的。在沿演替梯度的实地观察中，我们发现植物物种组成与土壤细菌群落之间存在相关性，而细菌香农多样性与植被特征无关。为了增加对细菌群落组装过程的因果理解，我们设计了实验室实验来专门测试植物组成对细菌群落的影响。使用我们现场的土壤和种子，我们将不同的表面灭菌种子组合添加到微观世界的均质土壤样本中，并在 4 个月后分析细菌群落。我们的结果证实了现场观察，表明实验植物群落组成塑造了细菌群落组成，而香农多样性不受影响。这些结果反映了植物与细菌之间的密切相互作用，是植物健康和群落组装的重要驱动因素。虽然这项研究提供了对植物在细菌群落组装中的作用的见解，但我们没有通过实验操纵群落组装的其他驱动因素，例如非生物因素。因此，我们建议进行多因素实验室实验来量化影响微生物组成的不同因素的相对重要性。