[Spatiotemporal dynamics and driving forces of soil bacterial communities on the dam of Shibahe copper mine tailings in Shanxi, China.]

The maintaining mechanism of community diversity is the core of community ecology. The mine tailing is a good field for studying on the underlying mechanism of community diversity, as a kind of original bare land with heavy metal pollution, where the physicochemical characteristics of soil change with the restoration periods. We examined the driving forces for bacterial community diversity based on the investigation of edaphic factors, plant community, and bacterial communities in Shibahe copper mine tailing, Shanxi. The results showed that nutrient contents in soil increased with restoration periods. The seasonal dynamics of soil nutrient in different restoration time were different. Shannon diversity and richness of bacterial community showed an increasing trend, indicating community stability was improved with restoration. Influenced by plant community, the seasonal changes of those indices differed with restoration. Results from the RDA analysis showed that the diversity and structure of bacterial communities were determined by environmental factors (edaphic, plant and heavy metals). Results from the structure equation models further confirmed that soil nutrients (TC, TN, NO3 - -N, NO2 -N), plant community, and soil enzyme activities jointly drove bacterial community assembly on the copper mine tailings.