Bridging Rare and Abundant Bacteria with Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Salinized Agricultural Soils: from Community Diversity to Environmental Adaptation

Abstract

Soil salinization is a worldwide environmental problem and threatens plant productivity and microbial diversity. Understanding the generation and maintenance of microbial diversity is essential to estimate soil tillage potential via investigating ecosystem multifunctionality. Our sequence-based data showed differences in environmental adaptations of rare and abundant bacteria at taxonomic and phylogenetic levels, which led to different contributions of taxonomic and phylogenetic α-diversities of rare and abundant bacteria to soil EMF. Studying the diversity of rare and abundant bacteria and their contributions to EMF in salinized soils is critical for guiding soil restoration.