Bacteria are key mediators of soil processes in terrestrial ecosystems, yet the life histories and ecological attributes of even the more abundant and ubiquitous soil bacteria remain largely unknown. Here, I will present the results from a global survey of soils collected from 237 locations across six continents aiming to build the first atlas of dominant soil bacterial taxa across the globe.
Results/Conclusions
The findings from this survey suggest that despite the overwhelming diversity of soil bacterial communities, relatively few bacterial taxa are dominant in soils across the globe. More specifically, two percent of all bacterial taxa —or around 500 individual phylotypes— consistently accounted for almost half of the soil bacterial communities worldwide. Representative genomes and cultivated strains were largely lacking for these dominant taxa, yet the most dominant phylotypes could be clustered into ecological groups that tend to co-occur and share similar environmental preferences for water availability, soil pH, and plant productivity conditions. This information was then used to build the first global atlas of soil bacterial taxa. The results presented here narrows down the immense number of bacterial taxa to a ‘most wanted’ list that will be fruitful targets for genomic and cultivation-based efforts aimed at improving our understanding of soil microbes and their contributions to ecosystem functioning.