Microbial Communities in a Serpentinizing Aquifer Are Assembled through Strong Concurrent Dispersal Limitation and Selection.

ABSTRACT: In recent years, our appreciation of the extent of habitable environments in Earth's subsurface has greatly expanded, as has our understanding of the biodiversity contained within. Most studies have relied on single sampling points, rather than considering the long-term dynamics of subsurface environments and their microbial populations. One such habitat are aquifers associated with the aqueous alteration of ultramafic rocks through a process known as serpentinization. Ecological modeling performed on a multiyear time series of microbiology, hydrology, and geochemistry in an ultrabasic aquifer within the Coast Range Ophiolite reveals that community assembly is governed by undominated assembly (i.e., neither stochastic [random] nor deterministic [selective] processes alone govern assembly).

SUBMITTER: Putman LI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8547479 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature