Quantifying community assembly processes and identifying features that impose them

Spatial turnover in the composition of biological communities is governed by (ecological) Drift, Selection and Dispersal. Commonly applied statistical tools cannot quantitatively estimate these processes, nor identify abiotic features that impose these processes. For interrogation of subsurface microbial communities distributed across two geologically distinct formations of the unconfined aquifer underlying the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, we developed an analytical framework that advances ecological understanding in two primary ways. First, we quantitatively estimate influences of Drift, Selection and Dispersal. Second, ecological patterns are used to characterize measured and unmeasured…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-AC06-76RLO, DE-AC06-76RLO 1830, AC06-76RLO 1830, 76RLO 1830, contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830
• B
  Battelle

  Awards: DE-AC06-76RLO 1830, AC06-76RLO 1830, DE-AC06-76RLO
• BA
  Biological and Environmental Research

  Award: DE-AC06-76RLO 1830
• PN
  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  Awards: DE-AC06-76RLO 1830, DE-AC06-76RLO