Species sorting and neutral processes are both important during the initial assembly of bacterial communities.

ABSTRACT: Many studies have shown that species sorting, that is, the selection by local environmental conditions is important for the composition and assembly of bacterial communities. On the other hand, there are other studies that could show that bacterial communities are neutrally assembled. In this study, we implemented a microcosm experiment with the aim to determine, at the same time, the importance of species sorting and neutral processes for bacterial community assembly during the colonisation of new, that is, sterile, habitats, by atmospheric bacteria. For this we used outdoor microcosms, which contained sterile medium from three different rock pools representing different environmental conditions, which were seeded by rainwater bacteria. We found some evidence for neutral assembly processe

SUBMITTER: Langenheder S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3146284 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature