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Interaction balance governs microbial community richness-stability relationship in terrestrial ecosystems
  • +8
  • Hanchang Zhou,
  • Anzhou Ma,
  • Guohua Liu,
  • Xianke Chen,
  • Xiaorong Zhou,
  • Jun Yin,
  • Yu Liang,
  • Jiejie Zhang,
  • Pengxue Gen,
  • Ruiying Chang,
  • Guoqiang Zhuang
Hanchang Zhou
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Anzhou Ma
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Guohua Liu
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Xianke Chen
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Xiaorong Zhou
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Jun Yin
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Yu Liang
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Jiejie Zhang
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Pengxue Gen
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Ruiying Chang
Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Guoqiang Zhuang
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Abstract

Richness-stability relationships (RSRs), such as richness-resistance relationship and richness-resilience relationship, are a basic, but controversial, question in ecology. RSRs vary among different communities, with the positive and negative interactions among community members considered as the potential cause of different RSRs. However, there is still no empirical data to support the relationship between these interactions and RSRs. To confirm the potential effect of community interactions on RSRs, we selected soil microbial communities from ecosystems that represented 5 different successional stages and conducted a simulated stress-recovery incubation. Our results showed that soil microbial community RSRs were controlled by the balance of positive and negative interactions. If positive and negative interaction of the microbial community network were balanced, the richness-resistance relationship was significantly positive while the richness-resilience relationship was negative. In contrast, if positive and negative interaction were unbalanced, the richness-resistance relationship was significantly negative while the richness-resilience relationship was positive.