Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Ecological Succession

Ecological Succession

Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...

The Soil Ecosystem

The Soil Ecosystem

Plants obtain inorganic minerals and water from the soil, which acts as a natural medium for land plants. The composition and quality of soil depend not only on the chemical constituents but also on the presence of living organisms. In general, soils contain three major components:

The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition

The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition

Plants have the impressive ability to create their own food through photosynthesis. However, plants often require assistance from organisms in the soil to acquire the nutrients they need to function correctly. Both bacteria and fungi have evolved symbiotic relationships with plants that help the species to thrive in a wide variety of environments.

Environmental Applications of Microorganisms

Environmental Applications of Microorganisms

Microorganisms play a pivotal role in maintaining ecosystem balance by recycling essential elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, as well as supporting processes like bioremediation, wastewater treatment, and biofuel production.Microbes in Elemental CyclesIn the carbon cycle, microorganisms decompose organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide via aerobic respiration. This carbon dioxide is subsequently used by photosynthetic organisms to synthesize organic compounds, closing the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

An Electronic Phenotype Series for Measuring Adherence to the Wake Up and Breathe Protocol in Mechanically Ventilated ICU Patients.

Research square·2026

Same author

Predicting oxygen levels in microbial habitats using a metagenome-based approach.

mSystems·2026

Same author

Legacies of foundation species shape life after death.

Science advances·2026

Same author

Auditory Cortex Distinguishes between Spontaneous and Sound-Evoked Movements.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same author

Hierarchical recurrent temporal prediction as a model of the mammalian dorsal visual pathway.

PLoS computational biology·2026

Same author

Intelligent Reasoning Cues: A Framework and Case Study of the Roles of AI Information in Complex Decisions.

Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. CHI Conference·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Published on: September 11, 2016

Soil Microbial Networks Shift Across a High-Elevation Successional Gradient.

Emily C Farrer^1,2, Dorota L Porazinska³, Marko J Spasojevic^2,4

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States.

Frontiers in Microbiology

|January 11, 2020

Summary

Soil microbial communities shift during ecological succession, with increasing diversity but decreasing interaction network complexity. This challenges assumptions about how microscopic communities develop over time.

Keywords:

16S 18S ITS bacteria diversity fungi interaction network joint distribution model

More Related Videos

Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments

Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments

Published on: July 24, 2018

A Lipid Extraction and Analysis Method for Characterizing Soil Microbes in Experiments with Many Samples

A Lipid Extraction and Analysis Method for Characterizing Soil Microbes in Experiments with Many Samples

Published on: July 16, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Published on: September 11, 2016

Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments

Isolation and Analysis of Microbial Communities in Soil, Rhizosphere, and Roots in Perennial Grass Experiments

Published on: July 24, 2018

A Lipid Extraction and Analysis Method for Characterizing Soil Microbes in Experiments with Many Samples

A Lipid Extraction and Analysis Method for Characterizing Soil Microbes in Experiments with Many Samples

Published on: July 16, 2017

Area of Science:

Ecology
Microbiology
Environmental Science

Background:

Microbial communities are known to change with environmental gradients.
Understanding how microbial interactions change during succession is crucial but poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate changes in soil microbial community structure and species interactions across an ecological succession gradient.
To determine if microbial network complexity increases with succession.

Main Methods:

Utilized a high-elevation alpine ecosystem with varying successional stages.
Employed hierarchical Bayesian joint distribution modeling to account for environmental covariates.
Generated microbial interaction networks from residual species-to-species variance-covariance matrices.

Main Results:

Microbial diversity generally increased, and species composition significantly changed with succession.
Contrary to hypotheses, microbial interaction networks became less complex (fewer interactions per taxon) over succession.
Interactions involving photosynthetic microbes decreased, while those involving plants or soil microfauna increased in late succession.

Conclusions:

Microbial diversity and composition patterns do not directly correlate with interaction network complexity.
Network analysis offers novel insights into the ecological dynamics of complex, microscopic communities.
Ecological succession alters microbial interactions in unexpected ways, highlighting the need for nuanced ecological models.