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...

Ecological Disturbance

Ecological Disturbance

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.

Ecological Niches

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.

Levels of Organization

Levels of Organization

Biological organization is the classification of biological structures, ranging from atoms at the bottom of the hierarchy to the Earth's biosphere. Each level of the hierarchy represents an increase in complexity that builds upon the previous level.
Molecules Are Composed of Atoms, and Biomolecules Are Assembled from Molecules:
The most basic levels include atoms, molecules, and biomolecules. Atoms, the smallest unit of ordinary matter, are composed of a nucleus and electrons. Molecules...

Assembly of Complex Microtubule Structures

Assembly of Complex Microtubule Structures

Complex microtubule structures are present in resting cells and in dividing cells. In resting cells, they are responsible for maintaining the cellular architecture, tracks for intracellular transport, positioning of organelles, assembly of cilia and flagella. They mediate the bipolar spindle assembly for chromosomal segregation and positioning of the cell division plate in dividing cells. The formation of microtubule complex structures depends on the cell type, cell stage, and cell function.

What are Populations and Communities?

What are Populations and Communities?

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Comparison of Environmental DNA and Bulk DNA Metabarcoding for Assessing Terrestrial Arthropod Diversity Across Three Habitat Types on Guam.

Molecular ecology resources·2026

Same author

Closely related, yet phenotypically different - Genome assemblies of two sister species of widow spiders: <i>Latrodectus hasselti</i> and <i>L. katipo</i>, Theridiidae.

GigaByte (Hong Kong, China)·2026

Same author

Event-based spatiotemporal networks for modelling emergent phenomena in complex systems.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Tropical Seed Trait Database: advancing seed functional ecology in the world's most biodiverse region.

The New phytologist·2026

Same author

Testing newly developed PCR primers for high-specificity enrichment of bees from terrestrial eDNA.

BMC research notes·2026

Same author

A Field-Deployable eDNA Metabarcoding Workflow Including De Novo Reference Assembly for Characterising Understudied Biodiversity Hotspots.

Molecular ecology resources·2026

Same journal

Genomic Diversity of Aurochs From a Mediterranean Ice-Age Refugium.

Molecular ecology·2026

Same journal

Introgression and Divergence in a Young Species Group.

Molecular ecology·2026

Same journal

The Fungal Community of a High-Arctic Semi-Desert Ecosystem Is Robust to Two Decades of Doubled Summer Precipitation but Influenced by Plant Dominance.

Molecular ecology·2026

Same journal

Cessation of Gene Flow Associated With the Reduction of a Sexually Selected Phenotype in the Island Stag Beetle.

Molecular ecology·2026

Same journal

A 'Bermuda Triangle' Effect Shaping Reef Fish Connectivity Across the Western Atlantic.

Molecular ecology·2026

Same journal

Molecular Tuning and Morphology of the Olfactory System Underlie Nestmate Recognition in a Polymorphic Ant.

Molecular ecology·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Published on: September 25, 2021

Ecological network structure in response to community assembly processes over evolutionary time.

Natalie R Graham¹, Henrik Krehenwinkel², Jun Ying Lim³

¹Department of Environmental Sciences Policy and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.

Molecular Ecology

|February 4, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological communities mature over time, developing more diverse and even interactions between species. Younger ecosystems have fewer, stronger relationships, which can be disrupted by invasive species.

Keywords:

DNA metabarcoding community assembly ecological networks oceanic islands

More Related Videos

Design, Surface Treatment, Cellular Plating, and Culturing of Modular Neuronal Networks Composed of Functionally Inter-connected Circuits

Design, Surface Treatment, Cellular Plating, and Culturing of Modular Neuronal Networks Composed of Functionally Inter-connected Circuits

Published on: April 15, 2015

Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline

Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline

Published on: December 7, 2021

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Published on: September 25, 2021

Design, Surface Treatment, Cellular Plating, and Culturing of Modular Neuronal Networks Composed of Functionally Inter-connected Circuits

Design, Surface Treatment, Cellular Plating, and Culturing of Modular Neuronal Networks Composed of Functionally Inter-connected Circuits

Published on: April 15, 2015

Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline

Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline

Published on: December 7, 2021

Area of Science:

Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Community Ecology
Island Biogeography

Background:

Ecological community structure is dynamic, shaped by species interactions over space and time.
Studying the interplay of ecological and evolutionary processes in community assembly is challenging due to the difficulty of measuring community structure over long temporal scales.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how ecological communities change with age using a geological chronosequence.
To examine the relationship between community age and the structure of arthropod-plant interaction networks.

Main Methods:

Utilized a geological chronosequence (50 years to 4.15 million years) in the Hawaiian Islands.
Sampled 11 arthropod and plant communities using semiquantitative DNA metabarcoding.
Calculated quantitative network statistics (linkage density, vulnerability, interaction evenness, index of specialization) for bipartite networks of arthropod-plant associations.

Main Results:

Linkage density, vulnerability, and interaction evenness significantly increased with community age.
The index of specialization exhibited a curvilinear relationship with community age.
Younger communities showed fewer but stronger interactions, while older communities displayed more even and diverse biotic associations.

Conclusions:

Community maturation involves a progression towards more even and diverse interactions, particularly evident in older ecosystems where adaptation and specialization have occurred.
The natural progression of specialization during community assembly may be hindered by the introduction of non-native species, posing a risk to younger or disturbed communities.