What drives study-dependent differences in distance-decay relationships of microbial communities?

Aim: Ecological communities that exist closer together in space are generally more compositionally similar than those far apart, as defined by the distance-decay of similarity relationship. However, recent research has revealed substantial variability in the distance-decay relationships of microbial communities between studies of different taxonomic groups, ecosystems, spatial scales, as well as between those using different molecular methodologies (e.g. high-throughput sequencing versus molecular fingerprinting). Here, we test how these factors influence the strength of microbial distance-decay relationships, to draw generalisations about how microbial β-diversity scales with space.

Location: Global.

Time period: Studies published between 2005-2019 (inclusive).

Major taxa studied: Bacteria, Archaea, and microbial Eukarya.

Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis of microbial distance-decay relationships, using the Mantel correlation coefficient as a measure of the strength of ...

研究目标：空间上距离更近的生态群落，其群落组成相似性通常高于距离较远的群落，这符合相似性距离衰减（distance-decay of similarity）关系的定义。然而近期研究表明，不同分类类群、生态系统、空间尺度下的微生物群落相似性距离衰减关系存在显著异质性，且采用不同分子实验方法（如高通量测序与分子指纹图谱技术）的相关研究之间也存在较大变异。本研究旨在检验上述因素如何影响微生物相似性距离衰减关系的强度，以概括微生物β多样性（β-diversity）随空间尺度变化的一般性规律。
研究范围：全球。
时间范围：2005年至2019年（含首尾年份）发表的相关研究。
研究类群：细菌域（Bacteria）、古菌域（Archaea）及微生物真核生物（microbial Eukarya）。
研究方法：本研究针对微生物相似性距离衰减关系开展荟萃分析（meta-analysis），以孟德尔相关系数（Mantel correlation coefficient）作为衡量[原文此处截断]强度的指标。