Competition-dispersal tradeoff ecologically differentiates recently speciated marine bacterioplankton populations.

ABSTRACT: Although competition-dispersal tradeoffs are commonly invoked to explain species coexistence for animals and plants in spatially structured environments, such mechanisms for coexistence remain unknown for microorganisms. Here we show that two recently speciated marine bacterioplankton populations pursue different behavioral strategies to exploit nutrient particles in adaptation to the landscape of ephemeral nutrient patches characteristic of ocean water. These differences are mediated primarily by differential colonization of and dispersal among particles. Whereas one population is specialized to colonize particles by attaching and growing biofilms, the other is specialized to disperse among particles by rapidly detecting and swimming toward new particles, implying that it can better explo

SUBMITTER: Yawata Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3992678 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature