Dispersal Homogenizes Communities Via Immigration Even at Low Rates in a Simplified Synthetic Bacterial Metacommunity

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2019 Mar 23

PMID 30899017

Citations 20

Authors

Stilianos Fodelianakis

Alexander Lorz

Adriana Valenzuela-Cuevas

Alan Barozzi

Jenny Marie Booth

Daniele Daffonchio

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Selection and dispersal are ecological processes that have contrasting roles in the assembly of communities. Variable selection diversifies and strong dispersal homogenizes them. However, we do not know whether dispersal homogenizes communities directly via immigration or indirectly via weakening selection across habitats due to physical transfer of material, e.g., water mixing in aquatic ecosystems. Here we examine how dispersal homogenizes a simplified synthetic bacterial metacommunity, using a sequencing-independent approach based on flow cytometry and mathematical modeling. We show that dispersal homogenizes the metacommunity via immigration, not via weakening selection, and even when immigration is four times slower than growth. This finding challenges the current view that dispersal homogenizes communities only at high rates and explains why communities are homogeneous at small spatial scales. It also offers a benchmark for sequence-based studies in natural microbial communities where immigration rates can be inferred solely by using neutral models.

Citing Articles

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