Bacterial community structure and functions in microhabitats associated with black stones in Black Gobi desert, China.

[Display omitted] • The bacterial variation within microhabitats associated with the black stone of the Black Gobi desert were investigated. • Bacterial communities within microhabitats were highly different in the desert ecosystems. • Microhabitats formed by black stones support highly diverse and biologically active bacterial communities. • Major environmental controls were water content, total carbon, and total nitrogen. Desert soil around the black stones is highly complex, which substantially affects the diversity and composition of inhabiting microbes. The existence of black stones in the southern part of the Black Gobi desert of China could provide microhabitats for diverse bacterial communities that remain unexplored. Hence, Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to determine the differences in bacterial communities associated within microhabitats in three sites of the Black Gobi desert, China. Our results show that bacterial communities are significantly affected by each microhabitat. For instance, the α -diversity of bacterial communities indicated more remarkable diversity and richness in these microhabitats. Considering β -diversity, variances were reported mainly in the Proteobacteria (30%), Actinobacteria (26%), Chloroflexi (19%), and Firmicutes (9%). Firmicutes were markedly enriched in the upper surface, especially in site 1. Compared to other microhabitats, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria was greater in the subsurface, and they were also more dominant in the other two sites. Network analysis of soil factors and bacterial genera showed that the most significant-occurrences were positively correlated, demonstrating potential synergistic interactions. Collective with the predicted function profiles and the redundancy analysis, these results indicated the highest variances in bacterial community structure and function in Black Gobi Desert ecosystems. These differences are likely closely related to the soil parameters, mainly water content, total carbon, and total nitrogen, and might be associated with black stones. This study concludes that microhabitats formed by black stones support highly diverse and biologically active bacterial communities. These microhabitats with extreme environmental conditions deliver new opportunities to explore soil bacterial communities at relevant spatial scales in the Black Gobi desert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]