ASV table for phoD-harboring taxa across southern China

The<b> </b>bacterial communities encoding alkaline phosphatase (<i>phoD</i>) gene (<i>phoD</i>-harboring communities hereafter), play essential roles in regulating organic phosphorus (P) mineralization in aquatic ecosystems. Like other microbial communities, the diversity and composition of these functional taxa are influenced by environmental gradients generated by both natural factors (e.g., climate) and anthropogenic impacts. However, the relative importance of these factors in shaping aquatic <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities remains largely unknown, particularly at large spatial scales, challenging the management of ecosystem functions in aquatic environments. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by collecting <i>phoD</i> amplicon sequence data across aquatic ecosystems in southern China. Our results demonstrated that natural factors were more influential than anthropogenic impacts in shaping aquatic <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities. Specifically, the richness of <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities was significantly and positively correlated with mean annual precipitation and temperature, exhibited a unimodal relationship with elevation, but showed no significant variation among different levels of anthropogenic impact. Differences in the topological properties of co-occurrence networks and the assembly processes of <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities were more pronounced among habitat types than among different levels of anthropogenic impact. Among the natural factors, precipitation emerged as the key determinant of the richness, community composition, and assembly processes of <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities. While anthropogenic impact was also a significant predictor, it was less important compared to natural factors. The relative abundance of Firmicutes emerged as a key predictor of anthropogenic P input. This study provides a mechanistic understanding of how <i>phoD</i>-harboring communities are assembled along environmental gradients driven by natural and anthropogenic factors in aquatic ecosystems across southern China.