Timescale of environmental change modulates metabolic guild cohesion in microbial communities.

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. Because communities typically harbor tens to hundreds of distinct taxa, the response of microbial abundances to perturbations is potentially complex. However, even though taxonomic diversity is high, in many communities taxa can be grouped into metabolic 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 combin

SUBMITTER: Crocker K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12448442 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature