Broad environmental adaptation of abundant microbial taxa in Robinia pseudoacacia forests during long-term vegetation restoration

Abstract

Vegetation restoration has significant impacts on ecosystems, and a comprehensive understanding of microbial environmental adaptability could facilitate coping with ecological challenges such as environmental change and biodiversity loss. Here, abundant and rare soil bacterial and fungal communities were characterized along a 15−45-year chronosequence of forest vegetation restoration in the Loess Plateau region. Phylogenetic-bin-based null model analysis (iCAMP), niche breadth index, and co-occurrence network analysis were used to assess microbial community assembly and environmental adaptation of a Robinia pseudoacacia plantation under long-term vegetation restoration. The drift process governed community assembly of abundant and rare soil fungi and bacteria. With increasing soil total phosphorus content, the relative importance of drift increased, while dispersal limitation and heterogeneous selection exhibited opposite trends for abundant and rare fungi. Rare soil fungal composition dissimilarities were dominated by species replacement processes. Abundant microbial taxa had higher ecological niche width and contribution to ecosystem multifunctionality than rare taxa. Node property values (e.g., degree and betweenness) of abundant microbial taxa were substantially higher than those of rare microbial taxa, indicating abundant species occupied a central position in the network. This study provides insights into the diversity and stability of microbial communities during vegetation restoration in Loess Plateau. The findings highlight that abundant soil fungi and bacteria have broad environmental adaptation and major implications for soil multifunctionality under long-term vegetation restoration.