Differences in macroecological dynamics among the three domains of life

Macroecological approaches in ecology seek to understand global statistical relationships between species’ abundances, their spatial and temporal variability, and diversity. Although environmental filtering, microbial interactions, diversification, dispersal, and local extinction have been observed to drive patterns of diversity and species distribution, a comparison of macroecological dynamics among the three domains of life is currently missing. Here we used environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data from the Australian Microbiome Initiative to explore the biodiversity of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes (including metazoans and protists) in marine and terrestrial biomes at continental scales. Our results show remarkably different community assembly patterns across the three domains of life in both biomes while presenting a consistent effect of spatial adjacency on environmental filtering and dispersal.