Abstract
Soil bacterial communities are central to grassland ecosystem functioning, yet how abundant and rare bacteria taxa differ in ecological strategies, community formation, and environmental responses remains unclear. Here we show, using 278 soil samples from grasslands across China, that these groups have contrasting but complementary ecological roles. Abundant taxa are mainly adapted to nutrient-poor conditions, tolerate a wider range of environments, and are shaped largely by random ecological processes. Rare taxa are more often associated with nutrient-rich conditions, occupy narrower environmental niches, and are governed more strongly by environmental selection. Machine-learning analyses identify pH and aridity index as the main drivers of diversity and community assembly in both groups. Predicted functions also differ: abundant taxa contribute more to carbon fixation, whereas rare taxa play greater roles in nitrogen cycling. Abundant bacterial functions depend mainly on geography and community composition, whereas rare bacterial functions rely more on diversity and respond more strongly to environmental change, highlighting their complementary contributions.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Zhao Sheng from Hunan Agricultural University for his valuable assistance in the preliminary data processing.
Funding
The study was financially supported by the Open Competition Projects to Select the Best Candidates for Leading Key Initiatives of the Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecosystems, Gansu Agricultural University, Ministry of Education (KLGE-2024-05), the China Agricultural University Corresponding Support Research Joint Fund (GSAU-DKZY-2024-004), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32360345), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province of China (24JRRA632), and the Fuxi Youth Talent Program of Gansu Agricultural University (GAUfx-04Y06).
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Zhang, X., Lv, L., Herath, S. et al. Niche differentiation and functional complementarity between rare and abundant taxa sustain grassland soil bacterial diversity.
Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-04101-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-04101-x
Source: Ecology - nature.com
