The microbial contribution to macroecology
There has been a recent explosion of research within the field of microbial ecology that has been fueled, in part, by methodological improvements that make it feasible to characterize microbial communities to an extent that was inconceivable only a few years ago. Furthermore, there is increasing rec...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Microbiology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00203/full |
| _version_ | 1828404836837621760 |
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| author | Albert eBarberan Emilio O. Casamayor Noah eFierer |
| author_facet | Albert eBarberan Emilio O. Casamayor Noah eFierer |
| author_sort | Albert eBarberan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There has been a recent explosion of research within the field of microbial ecology that has been fueled, in part, by methodological improvements that make it feasible to characterize microbial communities to an extent that was inconceivable only a few years ago. Furthermore, there is increasing recognition within the field of ecology that microorganisms play a critical role in the health of organisms and ecosystems. Despite these developments, an important gap still persists between the theoretical framework of macroecology and microbial ecology. We highlight two idiosyncrasies of microorganisms that are fundamental to understanding macroecological patterns and their mechanistic drivers. First, high dispersal rates provide novel opportunities to test the relative importance of niche, stochastic, and historical processes in structuring biological communities. Second, high speciation rates potentially lead to the convergence of ecological and evolutionary time scales. After reviewing these unique aspects, we discuss strategies for improving the conceptual integration of microbes into macroecology. As examples, we discuss the use of phylogenetic ecology as an integrative approach to explore patterns across the tree of life. Then we demonstrate how two general theories of biodiversity (i.e., the recently developed theory of stochastic geometry and the neutral theory) can be adapted to microorganisms. We demonstrate how conceptual models that integrate evolutionary and ecological mechanisms can contribute to the unification of microbial ecology and macroecology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T10:42:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5e5fe14c5230424fb5889ed0e090e623 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-302X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T10:42:50Z |
| publishDate | 2014-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Microbiology |
| spelling | doaj.art-5e5fe14c5230424fb5889ed0e090e6232022-12-22T01:52:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Microbiology1664-302X2014-05-01510.3389/fmicb.2014.0020389056The microbial contribution to macroecologyAlbert eBarberan0Emilio O. Casamayor1Noah eFierer2University of ColoradoCSICUniversity of ColoradoThere has been a recent explosion of research within the field of microbial ecology that has been fueled, in part, by methodological improvements that make it feasible to characterize microbial communities to an extent that was inconceivable only a few years ago. Furthermore, there is increasing recognition within the field of ecology that microorganisms play a critical role in the health of organisms and ecosystems. Despite these developments, an important gap still persists between the theoretical framework of macroecology and microbial ecology. We highlight two idiosyncrasies of microorganisms that are fundamental to understanding macroecological patterns and their mechanistic drivers. First, high dispersal rates provide novel opportunities to test the relative importance of niche, stochastic, and historical processes in structuring biological communities. Second, high speciation rates potentially lead to the convergence of ecological and evolutionary time scales. After reviewing these unique aspects, we discuss strategies for improving the conceptual integration of microbes into macroecology. As examples, we discuss the use of phylogenetic ecology as an integrative approach to explore patterns across the tree of life. Then we demonstrate how two general theories of biodiversity (i.e., the recently developed theory of stochastic geometry and the neutral theory) can be adapted to microorganisms. We demonstrate how conceptual models that integrate evolutionary and ecological mechanisms can contribute to the unification of microbial ecology and macroecology.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00203/fullDispersalspeciationmicrobial ecologymacroecologystochastic geometryNeutral theory |
| spellingShingle | Albert eBarberan Emilio O. Casamayor Noah eFierer The microbial contribution to macroecology Frontiers in Microbiology Dispersal speciation microbial ecology macroecology stochastic geometry Neutral theory |
| title | The microbial contribution to macroecology |
| title_full | The microbial contribution to macroecology |
| title_fullStr | The microbial contribution to macroecology |
| title_full_unstemmed | The microbial contribution to macroecology |
| title_short | The microbial contribution to macroecology |
| title_sort | microbial contribution to macroecology |
| topic | Dispersal speciation microbial ecology macroecology stochastic geometry Neutral theory |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00203/full |
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