Phylogenetic-scale disparities in the soil microbial diversity-ecosystem functioning relationship.

ABSTRACT: The historical conditions under which bacterial lineages evolve determine their functional traits, and consequently their contribution to ecosystem functions (EFs). Under significant trait conservatism, which is common in prokaryotes, phylogeny may track the evolutionary history of species and predict their functionality. Productive communities can arise from: (i) the coexistence of functional, and therefore phylogenetically distant lineages, producing high EF rates at large phylogenetic diversity (PD); (ii) the dominance of productive lineages that outcompete other clades, generating high EF at low PD. Community composition will modulate the PD-EF relationship: The effects of anciently divergent lineages, whose deeply conserved functions determine the occupancy of major niches, may differ

SUBMITTER: Goberna M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6092336 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature