Microbes as Engines of Ecosystem Function: When Does Community Structure Enhance Predictions of Ecosystem Processes?
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory · Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research · +47 more institutions
Abstract
Microorganisms are vital in mediating the earth’s biogeochemical cycles; yet, despite our rapidly increasing ability to explore complex environmental microbial communities, the relationship between microbial community structure and ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Here, we address a fundamental and unanswered question in microbial ecology: ‘When do we need to understand microbial community structure to accurately predict function?’ We present a statistical analysis investigating the value of environmental data and microbial community structure independently and in combination for explaining rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling processes within 82 global datasets. Environmental variables were the…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 59.97
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 70
Authors
50- EGEmily GrahamCorresponding
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder
- JEJoseph E. Knelman
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, Joint Genome Institute
- ASAndreas Schindlbacher
Austrian Research Centre for Forests
- SDSteven D. Siciliano
University of Saskatchewan
- MBMarc Breulmann
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
Topics & keywords
- Ecosystem
- Function (biology)
- Community structure
- Environmental science
- Ecology
- Environmental resource management
- Biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Life in Land