PNNL

Abstract

Archaea represent a unique and diverse group of microorganisms often associated with extreme environments. However, our understanding of their ecological patterns lags significantly behind of that for other organisms. In particular, we know very little on how and why main archaeal taxa change across environmental gradients at large spatial scales. This lack of knowledge is particularly evident for two of the most ecologically important groups of archaea: the halophilic archaea Haloarchaea and the ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) Thaumarchaeota. We hypothesized that soil salinity is a key factor in driving distinct distributions of these archaeal groups due to niche specialization. To test this niche-differentiation hypothesis under natural conditions, we used a large-scale research network including 173 dryland sites across Northern China.