Microbes Follow Humboldt: Temperature Drives Plant and Soil Microbial Diversity Patterns from the Amazon to the Andes

More than 200 years ago, Alexander von Humboldt reported that tropical plant species richness decreased with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. However, evidence for similar biogeographic patterns for plant, bacterial, and fungal communities together has remained elusive. Using an Andes‐to‐Amazon study transect traversing 3.5 km in elevation, we provide evidence demonstrating co‐ordinated temperature‐driven patterns in the diversity and distribution of all three major biotic groups in tropical ecosystems: soil bacteria, fungi, and plants. These photographs illustrate the article “Microbes follow Humboldt: temperature drives plant and soil microbial diversity patterns from the Amazon to the Andes” by Andrew T. Nottingham, Noah Fierer, Benjamin L. Turner, Jeanette Whitaker, Nick J. Ostle, Niall P. McNamara, Richard D. Bardgett, Jonathan W. Leff, Norma Salinas, Miles Silman, Loeske E. B. Kruuk, and Patrick Meir published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.248