Structured community transitions explain the switching capacity of microbial systems.

ABSTRACT: Microbial systems appear to exhibit a relatively high switching capacity of moving back and forth among few dominant communities (taxon memberships). While this switching behavior has been mainly attributed to random environmental factors, it remains unclear the extent to which internal community dynamics affect the switching capacity of microbial systems. Here, we integrate ecological theory and empirical data to demonstrate that structured community transitions increase the dependency of future communities on the current taxon membership, enhancing the switching capacity of microbial systems. Following a structuralist approach, we propose that each community is feasible within a unique domain in environmental parameter space. Then, structured transitions between any two communities can h

SUBMITTER: Long C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10861894 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature