Community development along a proglacial chronosequence: are above‐ground and below‐ground community structure controlled more by biotic than abiotic factors?

Summary 1. We studied vascular plant and soil‐dwelling testate amoeba communities in deglaciated sites across a range of substrate ages in Kenai Fjords, Alaska, USA to test four hypotheses. (i) Patterns of community assembly are similar for vascular plants and testate amoebae. (ii) Vascular plant and testate amoeba communities are more strongly correlated to abiotic variables than to each other, since these communities are not directly linked...