Inhospitable sweetness: nectar filtering of pollinator-borne inocula leads to impoverished, phylogenetically clustered yeast communities.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the rules and mechanisms that determine the composition and diversity of naturally co-occurring species assemblages is a central topic in community ecology. Although micro-organisms represent the 'unseen majority' of species, individuals and biomass in many ecosystems and play pivotal roles in community development and function, the study of the factors influencing the assembly of microbial communities has lagged behind that of plant and animal communities. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the mechanisms accounting for the low species richness of yeast communities inhabiting the nectar of the bumble-bee-pollinated Helleborus foetidus (Ranunculaceae), and explore the relationships between community assembly rules and phylogenetic relatedness. By comparing yeast commu

SUBMITTER: Herrera CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2842741 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature