Environmental similarity is more important than distance in the community structuring processes of ammonia-oxidizing archaea in agricultural soils

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are important in converting ammonia into nitrate in soils. While many aspects of their community structure have been studied, the relative importance of stochastic versus deterministic processes has poorly been understood. We compared AOA communities across the North China Plain, targeting the amoA gene. A phylogenetic null modelling approach was used to calculate the beta nearest taxon index to quantify the influence of stochastic and deterministic processes. We found that spatial distance between samples predicted the perceived processes involved in community structuring, with stochastic processes dominating at local scales. At greater distances, stochasticity became weaker. However, soil pH, which was also the strongest determinant of AOA community, was a much stronger predictor of community structuring, leaving the distance effect redundant as an explanation of community structuring processes. The communities of AOA differing by less than 1 pH unit differed mainly stochastically in terms of operational taxonomic unit composition. At larger pH differences, deterministic processes based on heterogeneous selection between clades became increasingly dominant. It appears that AOA community composition is largely determined by the environment. However, very similar pH environments are the exception. In environments with very close pH values, stochastic effects dominantly cause differences in community composition, whether spatially near or far.