Body size determines soil community assembly in a tropical forest
2019
Zinger, Lucie | Taberlet, Pierre | Schimann, Heidy | Bonin, Aurélie | Boyer, Frédéric | Barba, Marta De | Gaucher, Philippe | Gielly, Ludovic | Giguet-Covex, Charline | Iribar, Amaia | Réjou-Méchain, Maxime | Rayé, Gilles | Rioux, Delphine | Schilling, Vincent | Tymen, Blaise | Viers, Jérôme | Zouiten, Cyril | Thuiller, Wilfried | Coissac, Éric | Chave, Jérôme | Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA) ; Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG) ; Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA) | Laboratoire Ecologie, Evolution, Interactions des Systèmes amazoniens (LEEISA) ; Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | ANR : 11-INBS-0001 ; CEBA ANR 10-LABX-25-01- METABAR ; ANR-11-BSV7-0020 OSUG@2020 ; ANR-10LABX-56 and TULIP ; ANR-10-LABX-0041 | ANR-10-LABX-0025,CEBA,CEnter of the study of Biodiversity in Amazonia(2010) | ANR-10-LABX-0056,OSUG@2020,Innovative strategies for observing and modelling natural systems(2010) | ANR-11-BSV7-0020,METABAR,Metacode-barre ADN pour une nouvelle génération de suivi de la biodiversité(2011) | ANR-10-LABX-0041,TULIP,Towards a Unified theory of biotic Interactions: the roLe of environmental(2010) | ANR-11-INBS-0001,ANAEE-FR,ANAEE-Services(2011)
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Tropical forests shelter an unparalleled biological diversity. The relative influence of environmental selection (i.e., abiotic conditions, biotic interactions) and stochastic-distance-dependent neutral processes (i.e., demography, dispersal) in shaping communities has been extensively studied for various organisms, but has rarely been explored across a large range of body sizes, in particular in soil environments. We built a detailed census of the whole soil biota in a 12-ha tropical forest plot using soil DNA metabarcoding. We show that the distribution of 19 taxonomic groups (ranging from microbes to mesofauna) is primarily stochastic, suggesting that neutral processes are prominent drivers of the assembly of these communities at this scale. We also identify aluminium, topography and plant species identity as weak, yet significant drivers of soil richness and community composition of bacteria, protists and to a lesser extent fungi. Finally, we show that body size, which determines the scale at which an organism perceives its environment, predicted the community assembly across taxonomic groups, with soil mesofauna assemblages being more stochastic than microbial ones. These results suggest that the relative contribution of neutral processes and environmental selection to community assembly directly depends on body size. Body size is hence an important determinant of community assembly rules at the scale of the ecological community in tropical soils and should be accounted for in spatial models of tropical soil food webs. K E Y W O R D S DNA metabarcoding, eDNA, French Guiana, multitaxa, neutral assembly, niche determinism, propagule size, soil diversity
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