First atlas of soil microbial biodiversity in Mexico: a biogeographical approach

Mexico is recognized for its great biological diversity, supported by a wide variety of ecosystems. Nonetheless, there is no comprehensive study about the magnitude of microbial diversity and its biogeographical patterns across Mexican ecosystems. Here, we present a meta-analysis describing the diversity and biogeographical patterns of soil microbial communities across Mexico. We gathered 16S rRNA sequencing data from more than 700 soil samples collected across the Mexican territory. This data was used to test whether soil microbial communities differ between ecoregions and vegetation cover types. In addition, we evaluated the influence of edaphic and climatic factors over the diversity patterns of soil microbial communities across Mexico. Our results showed that soil bacterial communities from Mexico exhibit biogeographical patterns across ecoregions and vegetation cover types. Specifically, our results showed that diversity patterns in arid regions significantly differ from temperate and tropical ecoregions. Through redundance and correlation analysis we found that pH, carbon and nitrogen levels, temperature and precipitation are the main drivers of the bacterial diversity patterns across ecoregions and vegetation types. This work contributes to a better understanding of the biogeographical patterns of soil microorganisms across Mexico, highlighting the influence of environmental variation in driving the diversity patterns of soil microbial communities across Mexico.