Distribution patterns and functional characteristics of soil bacterial communities in desert ecosystems of northern China

Deserts are extremely arid environments where life is exposed to multiple environmental stresses, including low water availability, high temperatures, intense radiation environments and soil carbon and nitrogen limitation. Microorganisms have enormous potential applications due to their unique physiological adaptation mechanisms, extensive involvement in geochemical cycles and production of new antibiotics, among many other characteristics. With the increasing amount of open data provides unprecedented opportunities to further reveal bacterial biodiversity and its global role in ecosystem function. Through the collection of published high-quality sequencing data supplemented with experimental findings, we investigated the distribution characteristics and functional properties of bacteria in desert ecosystems in northern China. We show that there are significant differences in bacterial diversity among different sandy areas, and that soil properties and climatic factors are the main factors affecting bacterial diversity in desert ecosystems. The mean annual precipitation in growing season, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus had significant effects on the diversity of desert bacteria and main bacteria. Desert bacteria primarily participate in the macromolecular decomposition, phototrophy, and geochemical cycling of nitrogen. These findings deepen our understanding of the regional-scale soil microbial diversity patterns in Chinese desert ecosystems and broaden our understanding of the ecological functions carried out by bacteria in these environments.

Automated summary

Deserts are extreme environments with multiple environmental stresses. Bacteria in desert ecosystems have diverse functions and play important roles.