Journal Article

Mapping and predictive variations of soil bacterial richness across France

Cruaud, Corinne, Nowak, Virginie, Horrigue, Walid, Bispo, Antonio, Régnier, Tiffanie, Wincker, Patrick, Karimi, Battle, Tripied, Julie, Ranjard, Lionel, Chemidlin Prévost-Bouré, Nicolas, Maron, Pierre Alain, Jolivet, Claudy, Dequietd, Samuel, Lelièvre, Mélanie, Terrat, Sébastien, Arrouays, Dominique, Saby, Nicolas P. A.

2017

Overview

Although numerous studies have demonstrated the key role of bacterial diversity in soil functions and ecosystem services, little is known about the variations and determinants of such diversity on a nationwide scale. The overall objectives of this study were i) to describe the bacterial taxonomic richness variations across France, ii) to identify the ecological processes (i.e. selection by the environment and dispersal limitation) influencing this distribution, and iii) to develop a statistical predictive model of soil bacterial richness. We used the French Soil Quality Monitoring Network (RMQS), which covers all of France with 2,173 sites. The soil bacterial richness (i.e. OTU number) was determined by pyrosequencing 16S rRNA genes and related to the soil characteristics, climatic conditions, geomorphology, land use and space. Mapping of bacterial richness revealed a heterogeneous spatial distribution, structured into patches of about 111km, where the main drivers were the soil physico-chemical properties (18% of explained variance), the spatial descriptors (5.25%, 1.89% and 1.02% for the fine, medium and coarse scales, respectively), and the land use (1.4%). Based on these drivers, a predictive model was developed, which allows a good prediction of the bacterial richness (R2adj of 0.56) and provides a reference value for a given pedoclimatic condition.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Agricultural sciences / Analysis / Bacteria / Bacteria - classification / Bacteria - genetics / Bacteria - isolation & purification / Biodiversity / Biodiversity and Ecology / Biogeography / Biology and Life Sciences / Chemical properties / Climatic conditions / Dispersal / Earth Sciences / Ecology / Ecology and Environmental Sciences / Ecology, environment / Ecosystem services / Ecosystems / Environmental aspects / Environmental monitoring / Environmental Sciences / France / Geomorphology / Land use / Life Sciences / Mathematical models / Microorganisms / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Multivariate analysis / People and places / Physical Sciences / Physicochemical properties / Polymerase Chain Reaction / Prediction models / Research and Analysis Methods / RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics / rRNA 16S / Social Sciences / Soil bacteria / Soil characteristics / Soil chemistry / Soil conditions / Soil mapping / Soil Microbiology / Soil microorganisms / Soil properties / Soil quality / Soil study / Soils / Spatial distribution / Statistical models / Studies / Variation