Trade-off between species diversity and interaction complexity in the soil bacterial communities of Tiantong forest

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1000-5641.2025.04.007

Abstract

Abstract:

Based on 1287 soil bacterial community samples from Tiantong’s 20 hm² forest plot, this study applied the dissimilarity-overlap curve (DOC) analytical framework to the forest soil bacterial system for the first time, using the square of the slope of the fitting line to estimate the interaction complexity and tested Robert May’s stability constraint theory. Results showed that high interaction complexity occurred only when species richness was relatively low, while communities with high species richness tended to show low interaction complexity in Tiantong soil bacterial communities. In addition to species richness, there was a significant trade-off between other species diversity indices (number of top abundance species, Shannon effective species) and interaction complexity. This finding suggests stability constraints and upper interaction complexity limits in natural ecosystems, fostering deeper insight into mechanisms governing soil bacterial ecosystems’ diversity and stability.

Key words: species diversity, complexity, stability constraint, soil bacteria

CLC Number:

Congling ZHANG, Jing YANG, Xihua WANG, Yu LIU, Guochun SHEN. Trade-off between species diversity and interaction complexity in the soil bacterial communities of Tiantong forest[J]. J* E* C* N* U* N* S*, 2025, 2025(4): 69-76.

Figures/Tables 5

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