Recommendations
In summary, we recommend that: 1) authors provide more transparent,
detailed sampling information as well as sequencing and sampling effort
curves, 2) sampling effort is not arbitrary, but is adjusted based on
the diversity of plant microbiomes and per sample richness relative to
total community richness (both of which may require preliminary
sampling), and 3) authors consider increased sampling effort when
investigating subtler drivers of microbial communities such as host
filtering or small treatment differences, or when attempting to truly
characterize microbial communities. Standardizing how we sample
plant-associated microbial communities as suggested by Dickie et
al ., (2018), or at the very least, insisting on more robust and
transparent sampling strategies, will allow for more accurate and
comprehensive analyses as well as better cross-study comparisons in the
future.