title: Quantifying the relative roles of selective and neutral processes in defining eukaryotic microbial communities.
abstract: We have a limited understanding of the relative contributions of different processes that regulate microbial communities, which are crucial components of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. The contributions of selective and neutral processes in defining community composition are often confounded in field studies because as one moves through space, environments also change. Managed ecosystems provide an excellent opportunity to control for this and evaluate the relative strength of these processes by minimising differences between comparable niches separated at different geographic scales. We use next-generation sequencing to characterize the variance in fungal communities inhabiting adjacent fruit, soil and bark in comparable vineyards across 1000 kms in New Zealand. By compartmentalizing community variation, we reveal that niche explains at least four times more community variance than geographic location. We go beyond merely demonstrating that different communities are found in both different niches and locations by quantifying the forces that define these patterns. Overall, selection unsurprisingly predominantly shapes these microbial communities, but we show the balance of neutral processes also have a significant role in defining community assemblage in eukaryotic microbes.
authors.affiliation: The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.identifier: 0000000292255646
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Morrison-Whittle
authors.affiliation: The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.identifier: 0000000274824438
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Goddard
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D064307:Microbiota; D009520:New Zealand; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012987:Soil; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D027843:Vitis / Q000382:microbiology; D014920:Wine
chemical_list: D012987:Soil