First atlas of soil microbial biodiversity in Mexico: a biogeographical approach

Mexico is recognized for its great biological diversity, supported by a
wide variety of ecosystems. Nonetheless, to date, there is no
comprehensive study about the magnitude of microbial diversity and its
biogeographical patterns across Mexican ecosystems. Here, we present a
meta-analysis describing the diversity and biogeographical patterns of
soil microbial communities across Mexico. We gathered 16S rRNA sequencing
data from > 700 soil samples collected across Mexico. We analyzed
whether soil microbial communities differ between ecoregions and
vegetation types. In addition, we evaluated the influence of edaphic and
climatic factors on the diversity patterns of soil microbial communities.
Our results showed that soil bacterial communities across Mexico exhibit
biogeographical patterns across ecoregions and vegetation types.
Specifically, diversity patterns in arid regions significantly differ from
those in temperate and tropical ecoregions. Through redundancy and
correlation analysis, we found that pH, carbon and nitrogen levels,
temperature, and precipitation are the main drivers of the bacterial
diversity patterns across ecoregions and vegetation types. This work
contributes to a better understanding of the biogeographical patterns of
soil microorganisms across Mexico, highlighting the influence of
environmental variation in driving such diversity patterns.