Soil microbiota community assembling in native plant species from Brazil’s legal Amazon

Many endemic plant species from Brazil’s Legal Amazon present soil organisms in their rhizosphere. These organisms play a key role in the physiological traits, plant performance, and resistance against drought, and herbivory. Our aim here was to present a quantitative analysis of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species, and soil nematodes associated with endemic plant species from the Brazil’s Legal Amazon, Rio Branco, Acre. We found four main groups considering the similarities on soil microbiota community structure: i) T. cacao, M. flexuosa , and G. weberbaueri showed high AMF and soil nematode richness; ii) S. officinarum and V. unguiculata showed high herbivore nematode abundance and low Ambisporaceae and Claroideoglomeraceae sporulation; iii) H. brasiliensis and E. guineensis showed the low abundance of Gigasporaceae spores and lack of herbivore nematodes; and iv) E. precatoria showed the high abundance of A. colombiana, Monanchus , and Tripyla . The results of our study highlight the importance of considering endemic tree species as potential hosts for a solid and diverse soil food web on a sustainable way to improve soil ecology, root traits, and plant performance. Thus, long-term experiments considering these endemic tree species into agroforestry systems may exploit interesting results in tropical conditions.