Vegetation drives the elevational patterns of archaeal and protistan communities in the Hengduan Mountains, Tibet Plateau

The elevational patterns of soil bacterial and fungal communities in mountain ecosystems have been well understood, while the knowledge of assembly processes and potential functions of soil archaea and protists is scarce. Here, we conduct an in-depth survey on how soil archaeal and protistan communities vary along elevational gradients in the Hengduan Mountains, Tibetan Plateau, one of the World's top ten biodiversity hotspots. We found that soil archaea and protists exhibited contrasting elevational alpha diversity patterns, which can be attributed to the distinct ecophysiological traits of two microbial groups. Our study also revealed the pivotal role of vegetation type in shaping archaeal and protistan community assembly and potential ecological function in the alpine forest in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and highlighted the crucial role of archaeal and protistan community compositions in influencing ecosystem multifunctionalities.