Accuracy of mutual predictions of plant and microbial communities vary along a successional gradient in an alpine glacier forefield

作者：Xie He, Maximilian Hanusch, Victoria Ruiz-Hernández, Robert R. Junker · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2022.1017847 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Lichen and fungal ecology、Plant and animal studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Receding glaciers create virtually uninhabited substrates waiting for initial colonization of bacteria, fungi and plants. These glacier forefields serve as an ideal ecosystem for studying transformations in community composition and diversity over time and the interactions between taxonomic groups in a dynamic landscape. In this study, we investigated the relationships between the composition and diversity of bacteria, fungi, and plant communities as well as environmental factors along a successional gradient. We used random forest analysis assessing how well the composition and diversity of taxonomic groups and environmental factors mutually predict each other. We did not identify a single best indicator for all taxonomic and environmental properties, but found specific predictors to be most accurate for each taxon and environmental factor. The accuracy of prediction varied considerably along the successional gradient, highlighting the dynamic environmental conditions along the successional gradient that may also affect biotic interactions across taxa. This was also reflected by the high accuracy of predictions of plot age by all taxa. Next to plot age, our results indicate a strong importance of pH and temperature in structuring microbial and plant community composition. In addition, taxonomic groups predicted the community composition of each other more accurately than environmental factors, which may either suggest that these groups similarly respond to other not measured...