Neutral assembly of bacterial communities

Woodcock, Stephen; van der Gast, Christopher; Bell, Thomas; Lunn, Mary; Curtis, Thomas P.; Head, Ian M.; Sloan, William T.. 2007 Neutral assembly of bacterial communities. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 62 (2). 171-180. 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00379.x

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Official URL: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j...

Abstract/Summary

Two recent, independent advances in ecology have generated interest and controversy: the development of neutral community models (NCMs) and the extension of biogeographical relationships into the microbial world. Here these two advances are linked by predicting an observed microbial taxa–volume relationship using an NCM and provide the strongest evidence so far for neutral community assembly in any group of organisms, macro or micro. Previously, NCMs have only ever been fitted using species-abundance distributions of macroorganisms at a single site or at one scale and parameter values have been calibrated on a case-by-case basis. Because NCMs predict a malleable two-parameter taxa-abundance distribution, this is a weak test of neutral community assembly and, hence, of the predictive power of NCMs. Here the two parameters of an NCM are calibrated using the taxa-abundance distribution observed in a small waterborne bacterial community housed in a bark-lined tree-hole in a beech tree. Using these parameters, unchanged, the taxa-abundance distributions and taxa–volume relationship observed in 26 other beech tree communities whose sizes span three orders of magnitude could be predicted. In doing so, a simple quantitative ecological mechanism to explain observations in microbial ecology is simultaneously offered and the predictive power of NCMs is demonstrated

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00379.x
Programmes:	CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Biodiversity > BD01 Conservation and Restoration of Biodiversity > BD01.1 Distributions and abundance of taxa CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Biodiversity > BD03 The Genetic Basis of Ecological Function > BD03.1 Molecular ecology
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Hails
ISSN:	0168-6496
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open access paper. Please follow the Official URL for access to full-text.
Additional Keywords:	community assembly, dispersal, insular comunities, mathematical model, neutral model
NORA Subject Terms:	Biology and Microbiology Ecology and Environment Mathematics
Date made live:	12 Feb 2008 14:20 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/2290

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00379.x

Programmes:

CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Biodiversity > BD01 Conservation and Restoration of Biodiversity > BD01.1 Distributions and abundance of taxa
CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Biodiversity > BD03 The Genetic Basis of Ecological Function > BD03.1 Molecular ecology

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Hails

ISSN:

0168-6496

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

Open access paper. Please follow the Official URL for access to full-text.