DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4b8gthtk2
title: Drivers and mechanisms that contribute to microbial β-diversity patterns and range sizes in mountains across a climatic variability gradient

description: Microbial communities are highly diverse, yet the mechanisms underlying
 microbial community assembly are not well understood. Janzen's
 mountain passes hypothesis proposed that climatic barriers and dispersal
 limitation shape communities to a greater extent in mountains with lower
 climatic variability and overlap, permitting higher levels of species
 coexistence. Here, we investigate changes in microbial community
 dissimilarities, distributional range sizes and ecological processes along
 elevational gradients in three montane ecosystems representing a climatic
 variability gradient. We found that climate, climatic variability and
 spatial distance play dominating roles in affecting microbial β-diversity
 patterns and range sizes along elevational gradients. Janzen’s mountain
 passes hypothesis can be applied for microbial community assembly:
 mountains with lower climatic variability and higher climatic difference
 between elevations exhibited higher β-diversity, higher endemism, lower
 range sizes, and steeper distance-decay trends. However, microbial
 communities experience clear climate-driven limited range sizes and
 dispersal processes and show typical endemic patterns in all mountain
 ecosystems. Our results emphasize the importance of dispersal and climatic
 niche processes in shaping montane biodiversity. As a result, changes in
 climate may significantly impact soil biodiversity in montane ecosystems
 by altering the effects of dispersal limitation and climatic variability
 on bacterial and fungal community composition along elevational gradients.
description: These data include microbial composition data, phylogeny data and
 environment data used in this study. For detailed information, see the
 Methods part of this study.
description: # Drivers and mechanisms that contribute to microbial β-diversity patterns
 and range sizes in mountains across a climatic variability gradient
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4b8gthtk2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4b8gthtk2) These data include microbial compositions (i.e., bacteria and fungi), their phylogenic trees and environment data. Raw sequence data were deposited into the National Genomics Data Center Repository. All experimental methods and protocols can be obtained directly from the online databases and/or publications described in the Methods section. ## Description of the data and file structure In total, 60 plots were established across all three sites (i.e., five plots x four elevations x three sites). Soil available potassium, pH, organic matter, total carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium were measured for each plot. Plot information and other environment data can be found in Xu S., Yuan Y., Song P., Cui M., Zhao R., Song X., Cao M., Zhang Y., Yang J. The spatial patterns of diversity and their relationships with environments in rhizosphere microorganisms and host plants differ along elevational gradients. Frontiers in Microbiology 2023; 14: 1079113. Microbial compositions (i.e., bacteria and fungi) and their phylogenic trees were included here. "phylogeny\_bacteria.tre" is the phylogeny tree of bacteria; "phylogeny\_fungi.tre" is the phylogeny tree of fungi; "plot\_bacteria\_ASV\_table.rds" is the ASV table of bacteria, which includes 60 plots from tropical, subtropical and subalpine mountains; "plot\_fungi\_ASV\_table.rds" is the ASV table of fungi, which includes 60 plots from tropical, subtropical and subalpine mountains; "soil\_element.csv" includes the plot ID and soil properties: Soil organic matter (O.M, g/kg), Total carbon (T.C, g/kg), Total nitrogen (T.N, g/kg), Total phosphorus (T.P, mg/kg), Total potassium (T.K, g/kg), Available potassium (A.K, mg/kg), Soil water content (Water, %) and Soil pH (pH). ## Sharing/Access information This is a section for linking to other ways to access the data, and for linking to sources the data is derived from, if any. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: * DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1079113 ## Code/Software All experimental methods, protocols, R code and software can be obtained directly from the online databases and/or publications described in the Methods section.