Range expansions transition from pulled to pushed waves as growth becomes more cooperative in an experimental microbial population.

ABSTRACT: Range expansions are becoming more frequent due to environmental changes and rare long-distance dispersal, often facilitated by anthropogenic activities. Simple models in theoretical ecology explain many emergent properties of range expansions, such as a constant expansion velocity, in terms of organism-level properties such as growth and dispersal rates. Testing these quantitative predictions in natural populations is difficult because of large environmental variability. Here, we used a controlled microbial model system to study range expansions of populations with and without intraspecific cooperativity. For noncooperative growth, the expansion dynamics were dominated by population growth at the low-density front, which pulled the expansion forward. We found these expansions to be in clo

SUBMITTER: Gandhi SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4922184 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature