3.4. Factors affecting the distribution of the Bathyarchaeial
community
Our findings revealed that deterministic processes played a substantial
role in the assembly of highly prevalent Bathyarchaeia ,
particularly the Bathy-6 subgroup. This suggests that
environmental filtering is a pivotal factor influencing their community
structure. Consequently, we conducted an in-depth exploration of the
relationship between environmental parameters and the distribution ofBathyarchaeia and Bathy-6 .
The statistical analysis demonstrated that the relative abundance ofBathyarchaeia exhibited a significant negative correlation with
soil C/N and a positive correlation with the mean annual temperature
(MAT) (as portrayed in Fig. 4a, p < 0.01). In the case
of the Bathyarchaeial community, soil pH and C/N emerged as the two
principal factors shaping the communities of Bathyarchaeia andBathy-6 . This observation was reinforced by the results of
structural equation modeling (SEM), which assessed the direct and
indirect impacts of environmental parameters on the Bathyarchaeial
community and Bathy-6 (Fig. 4b). SEM outcomes indicated that theBathy-6 community could be directly influenced by soil pH and the
Bathyarchaeial community. Moreover, the relative abundance ofBathy-6 was positively affected by MAT and indirectly influenced
by soil C/N and pH.
Furthermore, we performed Pearson’s analysis to assess the influence of
environmental parameters on the abundance of Bathyarchaeial subgroups
detected in this study. The results indicated that soil EC, SOM,
NH4+,
NO3–, Fe, TN, and TC exhibited
predominantly positive correlations with Bath-5bb ,Bathy-15 , Bthy-11 , and negative correlations withBathy-17 . The relative abundance of Bathy-6 displayed
significant negative correlations with pH and C/N and positive
correlations with MAT (Fig. 4c).
Moreover, Random Forest analysis provided further insights, indicating
that MAT, C/N, and pH are the primary factors driving the distribution
of Bathy-6 (Fig. 5). These results underscore that Bathy-6tends to have a higher abundance in environments characterized by higher
temperatures, lower C/N ratios, and slightly acidic conditions (Fig. 5).