Soil microbial community diversity and driving mechanisms

To study the structure of soil microbial communities, DNA was extracted from different environmental soil samples, and 16S rDNA clone libraries were constructed. The diversity of these 16S libraries were analyzed with restriction fragment length polymorphism based on amplification ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (RFLP-ARDRA)method. The results reveal a high diversity of the soil microbial communities, and striking differences in community structure at different depths. In the surface soil environment, there is no dominant gene pattern, but in the subsurface samples some dominant gene patterns are much more common. With the increasing depth the preference dominance becomes more significant. A spatial isolation hypothesis is proposed to explain the different community structures at different soil depths. Microcosms are set to simulate competition between populations at different degrees of spatial isolation. These studies reveal that spatial isolation caused by low moisture affects the competitive interactions of the two populations. In the two-strain microcosm there is one dominant population at high moisture, and no dominance in very dry environments