Microbial functional guilds respond cohesively to rapidly fluctuating environments.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities experience environmental fluctuations across timescales from rapid changes in moisture, temperature, or light levels to long-term seasonal or climactic variations. Understanding how microbial populations respond to these changes is critical for predicting the impact of perturbations, interventions, and climate change on communities. Since communities typically harbor tens to hundreds of distinct taxa, the response of microbial abundances to perturbations is potentially complex. However, while taxonomic diversity is high, in many communities taxa can be grouped into functional guilds of strains with similar metabolic traits. These guilds effectively reduce the complexity of the system by providing a physiologically motivated coarse-graining. Here, using a combination o

SUBMITTER: Crocker K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11838272 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature