Contributions of Composition and Interactions to Bacterial Respiration Are Reliant on the Phylogenetic Similarity of the Measured Community.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial diversity underpins many ecosystem functions; however, the impact of within-species variation on the relationship between diversity and function remains unclear. Processes involving strain differentiation, such as niche radiation, are often overlooked in studies that focus on phylogenetic variation. This study used bacterial isolates assembled in two comparable microcosm experiments to test how species variation affected ecosystem function. We compared the relationship between diversity and activity (CO₂ production) in increasingly diverse multispecies microcosms and with multiple ecotypes of a single species. The bacteria used were isolated from a low-diversity environment and are species of potential clinical significance such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. All isolates

SUBMITTER: Rivett DW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5579169 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature