Soil bacterial diversity mediated by microscale aqueous-phase processes across biomes

Soil bacterial diversity varies across biomes with potential impacts on soil ecological functioning. Here, we incorporate key factors that affect soil bacterial abundance and diversity across spatial scales into a mechanistic modeling framework considering soil type, carbon inputs and climate towards predicting soil bacterial diversity. The soil aqueous-phase content and connectivity exert strong influence on bacterial diversity for each soil type and rainfall pattern. Biome-specific carbon inputs deduced from net primary productivity provide constraints on soil bacterial abundance independent from diversity. The proposed heuristic model captures observed global trends of bacterial diversity in good agreement with predictions by an individual-based mechanistic model. Bacterial diversity is highest at intermediate water contents where the aqueous phase forms numerous disconnected habitats and soil carrying capacity determines level of occupancy. The framework delineates global soil bacterial diversity hotspots; located mainly in climatic transition zones that are sensitive to potential climate and land use changes.