From Deterministic Selection to Stochastic Balance: Zokor Disturbance Reshapes Bacterial Assembly in Alpine Meadows

ABSTRACT The plateau zokor ( Eospalax baileyi ), a keystone subterranean engineer in the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau alpine meadows, creates dynamic mosaics of soil disturbances through mound formation that destabilize plant–soil systems but critically reshape soil bacterial assembly, a process essential for ecosystem functioning yet unresolved mechanistically. Here, we integrated 16S rRNA sequencing with ecological network and assembly modeling to assess bacterial community dynamics across zokor mound succession stages. The results showed that: Disturbance‐induced soil restructuring initiated a successional cascade: acute habitat fragmentation in new mounds (NM) fueled bacterial diversification (peak α‐diversity in semi‐new mounds, SM; p < 0.05), while competitive exclusion drove diversity decline in undisturbed grasslands (CK). Crucially, assembly transitioned from heterogeneous selection dominated (73.33% in NM/SM) to stochastic homogenizing dispersal (80% in old mounds, OM) as soil organic carbon (SOC) gradients attenuated. SOC‐mediated niche consolidation ultimately balanced deterministic‐stochastic processes in CK (selection: 53.33% vs. dispersal: 46.67%), revealing carbon stabilization as a keystone mechanism maintaining community resilience. Soil nutrients fueled plant diversity but suppressed keystone taxa, while plant diversity both constrained bacterial richness and stabilized communities. These findings redefine zokor disturbances as ecosystem engineers, initially diversifying microbiomes through habitat heterogeneity, before fostering network resilience via oligotrophic specialists.