Study on Altitudinal Distribution Pattern of Soil Micro-food Web Community Structure

As a core component of the soil ecosystem, soil micro-food web plays a key role in driving the carbon and nitrogen cycle, energy flow and nutrient transformation. Altitude gradient provides a natural experimental platform for revealing the construction mechanism of soil micro-food web community and its ecological function response by compressing the spatial variability of various environmental factors. This review systematically summarizes the distribution patterns of the main groups (microorganisms, protozoa and nematodes) of the soil micro-food web along the altitude gradient. The overall structure, energy flow path and driving mechanism of micro-food web are further analyzed. Finally, this paper points out the limitations of current research methods such as uneven coverage of groups, disconnection between functions and processes, and limited spatial and temporal scales, and proposes corresponding suggestions, in order to provide a theoretical basis for systematically revealing the ecological mechanism of the micro-food web along the altitude gradient and predicting the response and adaptation of mountain ecosystems under global changes.