Fig. 3

Domain-level OTU co-occurrence network of significant (P < 0.001) and strongly correlated (MIC > 0.8) OTU pairs between the Windmill Islands and Vestfold Hills. Nodes (circles = bacteria, triangles = eukarya, diamonds = archaea) and edges represent individual OTUs and their correlations respectively. Node size is proportional to their degree of connectivity and edge colour is based on linearity (green/solid = positive, purple/dashed = negative). Our soil microbial networks are comprised of moderately connected OTUs, more so at the Windmill Islands, structured amongst multiple components and forming a clustered topology. All three domains of life are present within the Windmill Islands network, most notably Crenarchaeota being strongly embedded and Actinobacteria forming the microbial backbone within these desert soils. In contrast, eukarya are absent from the Vestfold Hills network, suggesting possible competition