02259nas a2200289   4500008004100000245009100041210006900132260001200201490000600213520140100219653002301620653001601643653001401659653001001673653001801683100002401701700001701725700002101742700002601763700002601789700001701815700001701832700001801849700002001867700001801887856006401905       2023                        eng d00aStrong dispersal limitation of microbial communities at Shackleton Glacier, Antarctica0 aStrong dispersal limitation of microbial communities at Shacklet  c01/20230 v83 a<p>Microbial communities can be structured by both deterministic and stochastic processes, but the relative importance of these processes remains unknown. The ambiguity partly arises from an inability to disentangle soil microbial processes from confounding factors, such as aboveground plant communities or anthropogenic disturbance. In this study, we characterized the relative contributions of determinism and stochasticity to assembly processes of soil bacterial communities across a large environmental gradient of undisturbed Antarctic soils. We hypothesized that harsh soils would impose a strong environmental selection on microbial communities, whereas communities in benign soils would be structured largely by dispersal. Contrary to our expectations, dispersal was the dominant assembly mechanism across the entire soil environmental gradient, including benign environments. The microbial community composition reflects slowly changing soil conditions and dispersal limitation of isolated sites. Thus, stochastic processes, as opposed to deterministic, are primary drivers of soil ecosystem assembly across space at our study site. This is especially surprising given the strong environmental constraints on soil microorganisms in one of the harshest environments on the planet, suggesting that dispersal could be a driving force in microbial community assembly in soils worldwide.</p>10acommunity assembly10adeterminism10adispersal10aniche10astochasticity1 aLemoine, Nathan, P.1 aAdams, Byron1 aDiaz, Melisa, A.1 aDragone, Nicholas, B.1 aFranco, André, L. C.1 aFierer, Noah1 aLyons, Berry1 aHogg, Ian, D.1 aWall, Diana, H.1 aLurgi, Miguel  uhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/msystems.01254-22