Abstract
The space in which organisms live determines health and physicality, shaping the way in which they interact with their peers. Space, therefore, is critically important for species diversity and the function performed by individuals within mixed communities. The biotic and abiotic factors defined by the space that organisms occupy are ecologically significant and the difficulty in quantifying space-defined parameters within complex systems limits the study of ecological processes. Here, we overcome this problem using a tractable system whereby spatial heterogeneity in interacting fungal wood decay communities demonstrates that scale and patchiness of territory directly influence coexistence dynamics. Spatial arrangement in 2- and 3-dimensions resulted in measurable metabolic differences that provide evidence of a clear biological response to changing landscape architecture. This is of vital importance to microbial systems in all ecosystems globally, as our results demonstrate that community function is driven by the effects of spatial dynamics.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 720–731 |
Journal | ISME Journal |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgements This work was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) GW4 + DTP studentship (JO’L: NE/ L002434/1), and NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility (R8-H10-61) through an NBAF award (NBAF-977). We thank Dr. Clement Heude for training in small metabolite extraction technique.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International Society for Microbial Ecology.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics