Functional structure, taxonomic composition and the dominant assembly processes of soil prokaryotic community along an altitudinal gradient

The altitudinal patterns in soil microbial community diversity to elevational gradients have been focused on just for recent ten years. However, the mechanistic understandings of elevational patterns of microbial community structure remain elusive. To reveal the potential mechanisms, we profiled taxonomic prokaryotic communities along an altitudinal gradient based on high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene amplicons targeting the V4-V5 region, generated prokaryotic community functional profiles using function annotation, and estimated the relative quantitative importance of assembly processes that govern the prokaryotic community turnover across different altitudes on Lushan Mountain, China. Our results revealed the potential mechanisms driving the changes of soil prokaryotic community along altitude gradient, which are critical for predicting the future dynamics of soil microbial community in the face of disturbances.