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Microbial ecosystems are dominated by specialist taxa
Mahendra Mariadassou1, Samuel Pichon1, Dieter Ebert1
1Universität Basel, Zoologisches Institut, Vesalgasse 1, 4051, Basel, Switzerland.
Ecology Letters
|August 8, 2015
Summary
Microbial habitats are dominated by specialist species, showing a strong positive link between abundance and specificity. This finding holds across diverse datasets and taxonomic levels, explaining biodiversity patterns.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Microbiology
- Biodiversity Science
Background:
- Species distribution and biodiversity are shaped by abundance and specificity.
- Theories of species assembly seek to explain biodiversity patterns across habitats.
- The specialist-generalist paradigm posits specialists are more abundant locally.
Discussion:
- Developed a novel specificity index to analyze abundance-specificity relationships in microbial ecosystems.
- Analyzed microbiota from 23 diverse habitats across three datasets.
- Investigated the impact of sequencing depth and environmental conditions on these relationships.
Key Insights:
- Habitats are consistently dominated by specialist taxa.
- A strong, positive correlation exists between species abundance and specificity.
- This relationship is robust across taxonomic levels and sequencing depths.
Outlook:
- The abundance-specificity correlation explains why shallow sequencing adequately captures microbial beta-diversity.
- Shallow sequencing is sufficient for identifying habitat-specific microbial functions.
- Provides a framework for understanding biodiversity patterns and ecological assembly.
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