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Ecological Disturbance

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An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Basic Methods for the Study of Reproductive Ecology of Fish in Aquaria

Basic Methods for the Study of Reproductive Ecology of Fish in Aquaria

Published on: July 20, 2017

Ecological suicide in microbes.

Christoph Ratzke¹, Jonas Denk², Jeff Gore³

¹Physics of Living Systems, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. cratzke@mit.edu.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|April 18, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Certain bacteria can cause their own extinction by drastically altering environmental pH, a phenomenon termed ecological suicide. This self-destructive process is more likely at higher population densities and can be prevented by inhibiting bacterial growth.

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Last Updated: Feb 11, 2026

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Published on: July 20, 2017

Extracting DNA from the Gut Microbes of the Termite Zootermopsis Angusticollis and Visualizing Gut Microbes

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Published on: May 28, 2007

Assessing the Viability of a Synthetic Bacterial Consortium on the In Vitro Gut Host-microbe Interface

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Published on: July 4, 2018

Area of Science:

Microbial Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Environmental Science

Background:

Organism survival depends on environmental interactions, which can be positive (cooperation) or negative (resource depletion, toxins).
Extreme negative interactions, where populations harm themselves through environmental modification, are less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To identify and characterize a novel phenomenon of self-induced population extinction in microbes.
To investigate the mechanisms and conditions driving this extreme negative interaction, termed ecological suicide.

Main Methods:

Observational studies of Paenibacillus sp. bacteria and other microbes.
Manipulation of bacterial population densities and growth rates.
Monitoring of environmental pH changes and population dynamics.

Main Results:

Paenibacillus sp. bacteria induce rapid population extinction by extreme pH modification, termed ecological suicide.
Ecological suicide is density-dependent, becoming more probable with increased bacterial populations.
Inhibiting bacterial growth, e.g., with antibiotics, can prevent extinction, while promoting growth can accelerate it.
Ecological suicide can lead to oscillatory population dynamics in single-species systems.

Conclusions:

Ecological suicide is a significant factor in microbial ecology and evolution, driven by self-detrimental environmental modifications.
This phenomenon highlights the complex interplay between microbial populations and their environment, leading to self-destruction.
Understanding ecological suicide is crucial for predicting microbial community dynamics and evolutionary trajectories.