Dataset Information

The power of species sorting: local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales.

ABSTRACT: There is a vivid debate on the relative importance of local and regional factors in shaping microbial communities, and on whether microbial organisms show a biogeographic signature in their distribution. Taking a metacommunity approach, spatial factors can become important either through dispersal limitation (compare large spatial scales) or mass effects (in case of strongly connected systems). We here analyze two datasets on bacterial communities [characterized by community fingerprinting through denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)] in meso- to eutrophic shallow lakes to investigate the importance of spatial factors at three contrasting scales. Variation partitioning on datasets of both the bacterial communities of 11 shallow lakes that are part of a strongly interconnected and densely packed pond system <1 km apart, three groups of shallow lakes approximately 100 km apart, as well as these three groups of shallow lakes combined that span a large part of a North-South gradient in Europe (>2,500 km) shows a strong impact of local environmental factors on bacterial community composition, with a marginal impact of spatial distance. Our results indicate that dispersal is not strongly limiting even at large spatial scales, and that mass effects do not have a strong impact on bacterial communities even in physically connected systems. We suggest that the fast population growth rates of bacteria facilitate efficient species sorting along environmental gradients in bacterial communities over a very broad range of dispersal rates.

SUBMITTER: Van der Gucht K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2154443 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The power of species sorting: local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales.

Van der Gucht Katleen K Cottenie Karl K Muylaert Koenraad K Vloemans Nele N Cousin Sylvie S Declerck Steven S Jeppesen Erik E Conde-Porcuna Jose-Maria JM Schwenk Klaus K Zwart Gabriel G Degans Hanne H Vyverman Wim W De Meester Luc L

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20071211 51

There is a vivid debate on the relative importance of local and regional factors in shaping microbial communities, and on whether microbial organisms show a biogeographic signature in their distribution. Taking a metacommunity approach, spatial factors can become important either through dispersal limitation (compare large spatial scales) or mass effects (in case of strongly connected systems). We here analyze two datasets on bacterial communities [characterized by community fingerprinting throu ...[more]

PMID: 18077371

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Dataset Information

The power of species sorting: local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales.

Publications

The power of species sorting: local factors drive bacterial community composition over a wide range of spatial scales.

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