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The spatial heterogeneity of resources in desert and semi-arid shrubland appears to be important in determining higher soil bacteria abundance around plants than in soil without plant cover. Thus, these bacterial communities could be important contributors to nutrient cycling in arid ecosystems. Bacterial diversity from Chilean sclerophyllous matorral was determined by Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP). Soil samples associated with the actinorhizal plant Colletia hystrix, non-actinorhizal plants and interspace soil without plant cover, were collected in May and October. The non-actinorhizal and interspace soil differed significantly in their potassium content in May and pH in October. The T-RFLP analysis revealed differences in the bacterial community structure from the different habitats. The soil bacterial communities associated with plants were the most similar, whereas the interspace soil community differed in both sampling times. The factors that best explained the groupings were potassium and pH. The greatest diversity was observed in the interspace soil. The Microbial Community Analysis showed a significant proportion of T-RFs identified as Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Likewise, spatial and temporal differences were observed in the main groups’ abundance. The dominance of Firmicutes suggests that the sclerophyllous matorral could be a different ecosystem to other and and semi-arid soils with respect to the bacterial community structure. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.