Soil salinization increases the stability of fungal not bacterial communities in the Taklamakan desert

• Bacterial richness declined but fungal increased under salinization. Bacteria did not become interactively compact or facilitative Fungi exhibited more compartmentalized and competitive patterns Fungal stability showed steeper increases salinization than bacterial stability. Soil is a typical environmental challenge in arid regions worldwide. Salinity stress plant convergent adaptations interactions thus destabilizes communities. bacteria fungi have smaller body mass plants are often efficient against soil salinization, how the of communities change with wide range salinity gradient remains unclear. Here, we assessed within both along Taklamakan desert to examine (i) whether decreased salinity, (ii) which community fungi. Our results that species increasing topsoils. became stable compartmentalization (i.e., modularity) proportion competitions negative:positive cohesion) as increased. no changes modularity cohesion compared suggest that, by altering interspecific interactions, extreme environments.