More support for Earth's massive microbiome.

ABSTRACT: Until recently, our planet was thought to be home to ~ 107 species, largely belonging to plants and animals. Despite being the most abundant organisms on Earth, the contribution of microbial life to global biodiversity has been greatly underestimated and, in some cases, completely overlooked. Using a compilation of data known as the Global Prokaryotic Census (GPC), it was recently claimed that there are ~ 106 extant bacterial and archaeal taxa [1], an estimate that is orders of magnitude lower than predictions for global microbial biodiversity based on the lognormal model of biodiversity and diversity-abundance scaling laws [2]. Here, we resolve this discrepancy by 1) identifying violations of sampling theory, 2) correcting for the misuse of biodiversity theory, and 3) conducting a reanaly

SUBMITTER: Lennon JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7055056 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature