Fungal Communities Are Important Determinants of Bacterial Community Composition in Deadwood
Iñaki Odriozola, Nerea Abrego, Vojtěch Tláskal, Petra Zrůstová, Daniel Morais, Tomáš Větrovský, Otso Ovaskainen, Petr Baldrián
Abstract
Understanding the interactive dynamics between fungal and bacterial communities is important to gain predictive knowledge on ecosystem functioning. However, little is known about the mechanisms behind fungal-bacterial associations and the directionality of species interactions. Applying joint species distribution modeling to high-throughput sequencing data on co-occurring fungal-bacterial communities in deadwood, we found evidence that nonrandom fungal-bacterial associations derive from shared habitat use as well as (potentially) biotic interactions. Importantly, the combination of cross-validations and conditional cross-validations helped us to answer the question about the directionality of the biotic interactions, providing evidence that suggests that fungal communities may mainly affect bacteria in deadwood. Our modeling approach may help gain insight into the directionality of interactions between different components of the microbiome in other environments.