Carbon availability mediates rice straw decomposition microbial community assembly in subtropical China

Although increasing number of studies have shown that microorganisms play important roles in plant residues decomposition, the underlying ecological processes of microbial community assembly is still lacking. Environmental parameters (e.g. the abundance and quality of carbon) can influence microbial community assembly processes. Here, we conducted straw decomposition experiment using litter bags at three agro-ecological experimental sites across subtropical China and examined the community assembly of bacterial phylotypes in the whole straw decomposition stages using underlying ecological processnull models.