biostudies-literatureUnknown16(1)Gallardo-Navarro OMinerva FoundationActive matter, from motile bacteria to animals, can exhibit striking collective and coherent behavior. Despite significant advances in understanding the behavior of homogeneous systems, little is known about the self-organization and dynamics of heterogeneous active matter, such as complex and diverse bacterial communities. Under oxygen gradients, many bacterial species swim towards air-liquid interfaces in auto-organized, directional bioconvective flows, whose spatial scales exceed the cell size by orders of magnitude. Here we show that multispecies bacterial suspensions undergoing oxytactic-driven bioconvection exhibit dynamically driven spatial segregation, despite the enhanced mixing of bioconvective flows, and the fact that these species coexist in their natural habitat. Segregation iNature communications950https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11754595biostudies-literatureDynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection.PMC11754595Stavans JArbel-Goren RAugust EGallardo-Navarro OOlmedo-Alvarez GfalseDynamically induced spatial segregation in multispecies bacterial bioconvection.Active matter, from motile bacteria to animals, can exhibit striking collective and coherent behavior. Despite significant advances in understanding the behavior of homogeneous systems, little is known about the self-organization and dynamics of heterogeneous active matter, such as complex and diverse bacterial communities. Under oxygen gradients, many bacterial species swim towards air-liquid interfaces in auto-organized, directional bioconvective flows, whose spatial scales exceed the cell size by orders of magnitude. Here we show that multispecies bacterial suspensions undergoing oxytactic-driven bioconvection exhibit dynamically driven spatial segregation, despite the enhanced mixing of bioconvective flows, and the fact that these species coexist in their natural habitat. Segregation i2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Jan2025-04-21T23:53:40.882Z2025-04-05T19:23:47.083ZS-EPMC117545953984389310.1038/s41467-025-56244-8