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Aim: Revealing the role of regional species pool size in community assembly rules is essential for extending the species‐pool framework to large‐scale community ecology, and thus for more comprehensive understanding of biodiversity formation. However, little has been done to couple the regional species‐pool effect into local ecological processes in soil fungal communities, which play essential roles in ecosystems worldwide. Here, we performed large‐scale soil surveys of fungal communities to examine the linkage between regional species pool size and Dispersal–Selection Relationships (DSRs), and their relations to community structure. Location: China. Time period: July–August 2019. Major taxa studied: Fungal communities. Methods: By conducting the nationwide soil survey of ~1200 samples from various ecosystems across China, including agricultural, forest, grassland, and wetland soils, we examined the linkage between regional species pool size and DSRs, and their relationship to fungal community structure. Results: We found that selection was negatively related to dispersal, which was consistent with the general view that the strength of selection is weakened by dispersal homogenization, and that this relationship was stronger in regions with larger species pools. Moreover, an increase in community dispersion was correlated with stronger effect size of DSRs, implying greater heterogeneity among fungal communities under larger species pools. Main conclusions: Our study clearly illustrates the association of regional species pool size with local assembly rules and community formation of soil fungi across terrestrial ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soils in forested ecosystems are extremely heterogeneous and represent a critical component of terrestrial ecosystems. Despite their substantial ecological value, the geographic characteristics, ecological processes, and coexistence of microbial communities in forest soils remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the biodiversity dynamics, environmental influences, community assembly, and co‐occurrence patterns of bacterial and fungal communities in surface and subsurface soils across 47 Chinese forest sites. The biogeographic characteristics determined using high‐throughput sequencing data sets revealed evident spatial patterns of bacterial and fungal α and β diversity, assembly processes, and co‐occurrence relationship, with greater variation in the bacterial than in fungal communities. Both fungal and bacterial communities showed significant spatial separations regulated by community assembly processes, co‐occurrence patterns, and soil variables. The microbial dissimilarity was lower in high latitudes than in low latitudes, which was consistent with the lower deterministic processes and relatively higher co‐occurrence associations in high latitudes than in low latitudes. Additionally, there were significant associations of soil dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics (e.g., its content, aromaticity, and molecular weight) with biodiversity dissimilarities, microbial assembly process balances, and microbial co‐occurrence relationships in bacterial and fungal communities; they clearly indicate the key role of DOM in regulating microbial biogeographic patterns in forest soil ecosystems. Collectively, our study enhances the understanding of biogeographic patterns and coexistence theories in forest soil microbial ecosystems. Plain Language Summary: Our study revealed an intrinsic link between microbial spatial variation, environmental impacts, community assembly processes, and species coexistence patterns. Understanding the mechanisms of microbial community diversity is a prerequisite for recognizing the environmental functions of microbes in forest soil ecosystems. To sum up, this study illustrates the critical influence of DOM in microbial spatial variation, assembly processes, and species coexistence of microbial communities in Chinese forest soils. Our study contributes to management strategies for microbial communities in forest ecosystems to better adapt to habitat fragmentation and climate change. Key Points: The spatial dissimilarities of bacterial and fungal communities associated with soil DOMBacterial and fungal community assembly and co‐occurrence relationships shaped microbial biogeographyBacterial and fungal community assembly and species coexistence correlated with DOM [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the importance of body size in soil microorganisms and their adaptation to environmental changes in agricultural ecosystems. The study found that smaller microorganisms have stronger resistance to disturbances and higher diversity compared to larger organisms. Smaller microorganisms also have a wider niche breadth, allowing them to deploy survival strategies and survive in various environments. The research highlights the significant role of smaller microorganisms in maintaining stability in the soil microbiome and predicting agroecosystem dynamics. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings and understand the mechanisms behind them. [Extracted from the article]

Colleges and universities are large consumers of energy, with a huge potential for building energy efficiency, and need to reduce energy consumption to build a low-carbon, energy-saving campus. Predicting the energy consumption of campus buildings can help to accurately manage the electricity consumption of buildings and reduce the energy consumption of buildings. However, the electricity consumption of a building's operation is affected by many factors, and it is difficult to establish a model for analysis and prediction. Therefore, in this study, the training building of the BIM education center on campus was selected as the research object, and a digital twin O&M platform was established by integrating IoT, digital twin technology (DDT), smart meter monitoring devices, and indoor environment monitoring devices. The O&M management platform can monitor real-time changes in indoor power consumption data and environmental parameters, and organize data on multiple influencing factors and power consumption. Following training, validation, and testing, the machine learning models (back propagation neural network, support vector model, and multiple linear regression model) were assessed and compared for accuracy. Following the multiple linear regression and support vector models, the backpropagation neural network model exhibited the highest accuracy. Consistent with the actual power consumption detection results in the BIM education center, the backpropagation neural network model produced results. Consequently, the BP model created in this study demonstrated its dependability and ability to forecast campus building power usage, assisting the university in organizing its energy supply and creating a campus that prioritizes conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the soils of vanadium (V) smelters, a diverse array of microorganisms relies on metabolic activities for survival amid stress. However, the characteristics and functions of soil microbiomes in V mining environments remain unexplored on a continental scale. This study thoroughly investigates the microbial diversity, community assembly, and functional potential of soil microbiome across 90 V smelters in China. Alpha diversity decreases significantly along the V gradient, with V emerging as the primary factor influencing community structure, followed by other environmental, climatic, and geographic factors. The null model reveals that V induces homogeneous selection, shaping co‐occurrence patterns and leading to increased number of positive associations, particularly with keystone genera such as f_Gemmatimonadaceae, Nocardioides, Micromonospora, and Rubrobacter under higher V concentrations (>559.6 mg/kg). Moreover, a metagenomic analysis yields 67 metagenome‐assembled genomes, unraveling the potential metabolic pathways of keystone taxa and their likely involvement in the V(V) reduction process. Nitrate and nitrite reductase (nirK, narG), and mtrABC are found to be taxonomically affiliated with Micromonospora. sp, FEN‐1250. sp, Nocardioides. sp, etc. Additionally, the reverse citric acid cycle (rTCA) likely serves as the primary carbon fixation pathway, synthesizing alternative energy for putative V reducers, highlighting a potentially synergistic relationship between autotrophic and heterotrophic processes that supports microbial survival. Our findings comprehensively uncover the driving forces behind soil community variation under V stress, revealing robust strategies possibly employed by indigenous microorganisms to mitigate the impact of V. These insights hold potential for applications in bioremediation. Plain Language Summary: Vanadium, a byproduct of anthropogenic smelting, is predominantly sequestered in the soil, where soil microorganisms act as vital indicators of ecosystem health under pollutant exposure. The soil layer not only functions as a primary repository but also provides buffering capacity, impeding the migration of vanadium into groundwater. Study results reveal that the occurrence and abundance of microorganisms are collectively influenced by vanadium levels, environmental factors, geographical location, and climatic conditions. Species distribution is shaped by the interplay of vanadium levels and microbial migration across geographic gradients. In heavily contaminated soil, microbial interdependence is markedly heightened, especially with vanadium‐tolerant species, compared with relatively healthy soil, supporting diverse nutrient utilization for microbial growth. Keystone taxa in the community network assume pivotal roles in nutrient cycling, energy synthesis, and governing the bioreduction of high‐valent vanadium. These activities may mitigate the impact of vanadium on the soil environment near smelter sites. Key Points: Vanadium, environmental parameters, climatic, and geographic factors jointly explained the community variationElevated vanadium content promoted deterministic community assembling processes and strengthened the interspecific microbial associationKeystone taxa facilitated community survival via both putative autotrophic and heterotrophic pathways [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Across ecology, and particularly within microbial ecology, there is limited understanding how the generation and maintenance of diversity. Although recent work has shown that both local assembly processes and species pools are important in structuring microbial communities, the relative contributions of these mechanisms remain an important question. Moreover, the roles of local assembly processes and species pools are drastically different when explicitly considering the potential for saturation or unsaturation, yet this issue is rarely addressed. Thus, we established a conceptual model that incorporated saturation theory into the microbiological domain to advance the understanding of mechanisms controlling soil bacterial diversity during forest secondary succession. Conceptual model hypotheses were tested by coupling soil bacterial diversity, local assembly processes and species pools using six different forest successional chronosequences distributed across multiple climate zones. Consistent with the unsaturated case proposed in our conceptual framework, we found that species pool consistently affected α‐diversity, even while local assembly processes on local richness operate. In contrast, the effects of species pool on β‐diversity disappeared once local assembly processes were taken into account, and changes in environmental conditions during secondary succession led to shifts in β‐diversity through mediation of the strength of heterogeneous selection. Overall, this study represents one of the first to demonstrate that most local bacterial communities might be unsaturated, where the effect of species pool on α‐diversity is robust to the consideration of multiple environmental influences, but β‐diversity is constrained by environmental selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the functional heterogeneity of soil microorganisms at different spatial scales and linking it to soil carbon mineralization is crucial for predicting the response of soil carbon stability to environmental changes and human disturbance. Here, a total of 429 soil samples were collected from typical paddy fields in China, and the bacterial and fungal communities as well as functional genes related to carbon mineralization in the soil were analysed using MiSeq sequencing and GeoChip gene microarray technology. We postulate that CO2 emissions resulting from bacterial and fungal carbon mineralization are contingent upon their respective carbon consumption strategies, which rely on the regulation of interactions between biodiversity and functional genes. Our results showed that the spatial turnover of the fungal community was 2–4 times that of the bacterial community from hundreds of meters to thousands of kilometres. The effect of spatial scale exerted a greater impact on the composition rather than the functional characteristics of the microbial community. Furthermore, based on the establishment of functional networks at different spatial scales, we observed that both bacteria and fungi within the top 10 taxa associated with carbon mineralization exhibited a prevalence of generalist species at the regional scale. This study emphasizes the significance of spatial scaling patterns in soil bacterial and fungal carbon degradation functions, deepening our understanding of how the relationship between microbial decomposers and soil heterogeneity impacts carbon mineralization and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbes inhabiting deep soil layers are known to be different from their counterpart in topsoil yet remain under investigation in terms of their structure, function, and how their diversity is shaped. The microbiome of deep soils (>1 m) is expected to be relatively stable and highly independent from climatic conditions. Much less is known, however, on how these microbial communities vary along climate gradients. Here, we used amplicon sequencing to investigate bacteria, archaea, and fungi along fifteen 18‐m depth profiles at 20–50‐cm intervals across contrasting aridity conditions in semi‐arid forest ecosystems of China's Loess Plateau. Our results showed that bacterial and fungal α diversity and bacterial and archaeal community similarity declined dramatically in topsoil and remained relatively stable in deep soil. Nevertheless, deep soil microbiome still showed the functional potential of N cycling, plant‐derived organic matter degradation, resource exchange, and water coordination. The deep soil microbiome had closer taxa–taxa and bacteria–fungi associations and more influence of dispersal limitation than topsoil microbiome. Geographic distance was more influential in deep soil bacteria and archaea than in topsoil. We further showed that aridity was negatively correlated with deep‐soil archaeal and fungal richness, archaeal community similarity, relative abundance of plant saprotroph, and bacteria–fungi associations, but increased the relative abundance of aerobic ammonia oxidation, manganese oxidation, and arbuscular mycorrhizal in the deep soils. Root depth, complexity, soil volumetric moisture, and clay play bridging roles in the indirect effects of aridity on microbes in deep soils. Our work indicates that, even microbial communities and nutrient cycling in deep soil are susceptible to changes in water availability, with consequences for understanding the sustainability of dryland ecosystems and the whole‐soil in response to aridification. Moreover, we propose that neglecting soil depth may underestimate the role of soil moisture in dryland ecosystems under future climate scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central aim of community ecology is to understand how local species diversity is shaped. Agricultural activities are reshaping and filtering soil biodiversity and communities; however, ecological processes that structure agricultural communities have often overlooked the role of the regional species pool, mainly owing to the lack of large datasets across several regions. Here, we conducted a soil survey of 941 plots of agricultural and adjacent natural ecosystems (e.g., forest, wetland, grassland, and desert) in 38 regions across diverse climatic and soil gradients to evaluate whether the regional species pool of soil microbes from adjacent natural ecosystems is important in shaping agricultural soil microbial diversity and completeness. Using a framework of multiscales community assembly, we revealed that the regional species pool was an important predictor of agricultural bacterial diversity and explained a unique variation that cannot be predicted by historical legacy, large‐scale environmental factors, and local community assembly processes. Moreover, the species pool effects were associated with microbial dormancy potential, where taxa with higher dormancy potential exhibited stronger species pool effects. Bacterial diversity in regions with higher agricultural intensity was more influenced by species pool effects than that in regions with low intensity, indicating that the maintenance of agricultural biodiversity in high‐intensity regions strongly depends on species present in the surrounding landscape. Models for community completeness indicated the positive effect of regional species pool, further implying the community unsaturation and increased potential in bacterial diversity of agricultural ecosystems. Overall, our study reveals the indubitable role of regional species pool from adjacent natural ecosystems in predicting bacterial diversity, which has useful implication for biodiversity management and conservation in agricultural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Microbiome Protocols eBook (MPB) serves as a crucial bridge, filling gaps in microbiome protocols for both wet experiments and data analysis. The first edition, launched in 2020, featured 152 meticulously curated protocols, garnering widespread acclaim. We now extend a sincere invitation to researchers to participate in the upcoming 2nd version of MPB, contributing their valuable protocols to advance microbiome research., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Authors. iMeta published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of iMeta Science.)