Comment on “Soil Acidification Destabilizes Terrestrial Ecosystems via Decoupling Soil Microbiome”: Methodological Considerations Regarding the Inference of β-Diversity Trends

Abstract

I have read with great interest the article by Duan et al. (2025) published in Global Change Biology, titled “Soil Acidification Destabilizes Terrestrial Ecosystems via Decoupling Soil Microbiome.” The study addresses the critical issue of soil acidification and its impact on microbial communities and ecosystem stability, presenting a comprehensive analysis across diverse Chinese terrestrial ecosystems. The authors conclude, among other findings, that a decrease in soil pH leads to a reduction in bacterial β-diversity (convergent tendency) while concurrently increasing eukaryotic β-diversity (divergent tendency). While I appreciate the scope and ambition of this research, I wish to raise some methodological considerations regarding how these specific conclusions about β-diversity trends are drawn, primarily from the Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM) of Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) axis scores.

In conclusion, the study by Duan et al. (2025) makes a valuable contribution to understanding the large-scale impacts of soil acidification. However, I suggest that the specific conclusions regarding the decrease in bacterial β-diversity (convergence) and increase in eukaryotic β-diversity (divergence) driven by pH could be strengthened. While the PLS-PM analysis of NMDS scores shows opposing compositional responses to pH, a more direct and explicit presentation of statistical analyses quantifying changes in β-diversity levels or multivariate dispersion across pH gradients for bacteria and eukaryotes would provide more robust support for these particular inferences. Such clarification would enhance the already significant impact of their findings.

Xiaodong Wang: conceptualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

This article is a Letter to the Editor regarding Duan et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70174. See also the Response to the letter by Duan et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70396.