Habitat-dependent diversity, functional composition, community assembly, and multitrophic network of soil protists

Habitat had long been proposed as a “templet” for ecological strategies of organisms in nature. While protists are widespread in soil and play an important role in maintaining soil ecological functions, little is known about the habitat dependence of characteristics of soil protistan communities, especially at large spatial scales. Here, we characterized the protistan communities of 270 soil samples collected from five habitat types (i.e., farmland, forest, Gobi desert, grassland, and mine wasteland) to unveil the habitat-specific diversity, functional attributes, environmental affinities, and co-occurrence patterns of soil protists.