Wood characteristics determine bacterial assembly
soil metagenome
Wood decomposition is mediated by microbial activity. As decay proceeds, the composition and function of the resident bacterial communities change in response to shifting resource availability and interspecific interactions. However, we lack studies unravelling the effects of interspecific interactions from abiotic drivers of bacterial community composition. Here, we identified (i) how bacterial taxa changed along a chronosequence of wood decay stages; (ii) bacterial community succession dependency on the wood chemical characteristics.