Interchange of entire communities: microbial community coalescence

Matthias C Rillig; Janis Antonovics; Tancredi Caruso; Anika Lehmann; Jeff R Powell; Stavros D Veresoglou; Erik Verbruggen

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.004

Interchange of entire communities: microbial community coalescence

Trends Ecol Evol. 2015 Aug;30(8):470-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.004. Epub 2015 Jun 22.

Authors

Matthias C Rillig¹, Janis Antonovics², Tancredi Caruso³, Anika Lehmann⁴, Jeff R Powell⁵, Stavros D Veresoglou⁴, Erik Verbruggen⁶

Affiliations

¹ Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
³ School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Global Food Security, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.
⁴ Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
⁵ University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Richmond, NSW, Australia.
⁶ Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, PLECO (Plant and Vegetation Ecology), Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium.

PMID: 26111582
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.06.004

Abstract

Microbial communities are enigmatically diverse. We propose a novel view of processes likely affecting microbial assemblages, which could be viewed as the Great American Interchange en miniature: the wholesale exchange among microbial communities resulting from moving pieces of the environment containing entire assemblages. Incidental evidence for such 'community coalescence' is accumulating, but such processes are rarely studied, likely because of the absence of suitable terminology or a conceptual framework. We provide the nucleus for such a conceptual foundation for the study of community coalescence, examining factors shaping these events, links to bodies of ecological theory, and we suggest modeling approaches for understanding coalescent communities. We argue for the systematic study of community coalescence because of important functional and applied consequences.

Keywords: biodiversity; communities; community coalescence; environment; global change; metacommunity; mixing; networks.

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Ecosystem*
Microbiota*
Phylogeography
Spatio-Temporal Analysis