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Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli
Published on: August 18, 2023
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Investigating the eco-evolutionary response of microbiomes to environmental change
Jennifer B H Martiny1, Adam C Martiny1,2, Eoin Brodie3,4
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA.
Ecology Letters
|March 25, 2023
Summary
Microbial evolution significantly impacts biogeochemical processes, especially under novel environmental changes. Integrating evolutionary dynamics into models is crucial for understanding ecosystem services and microbial community responses over time.
Area of Science:
- Microbial Ecology
- Biogeochemistry
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Microorganisms drive essential biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem services.
- Microbial communities (microbiomes) are sensitive to environmental shifts.
- Microbial evolution's role in these responses is understudied.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a conceptual framework integrating evolution into microbiome functioning.
- To explore how ecological and evolutionary dynamics interact under environmental change.
- To highlight the long-term importance of evolution in microbially-driven biogeochemistry.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual modeling approach.
- Review of laboratory and field evidence.
- Analysis of simultaneous ecological and evolutionary processes.
Main Results:
- Microbiome responses involve physiological acclimation, demography, dispersal, and evolution.
- Ecological and evolutionary dynamics co-occur in microbiomes.
- Timescales of these processes dictate biogeochemical implications.
Conclusions:
- Evolution is critical for long-term microbially-driven biogeochemical responses.
- Framework aids in predicting microbiome functioning under environmental change.
- Understanding microbial evolution is key to ecosystem service resilience.
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