BRS Jon Shurin: Macro-ecology of micro-organisms in changing aquatic ecosystems

Host: Michelle Tseng Lab

Title: Macro-ecology of micro-organisms in changing aquatic ecosystems

Abstract: Microbes are omnipresent and play many unseen roles in ecosystems.  I will describe work aimed at understanding the movement of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes among aquatic habitats and identify traits leading to successful dispersal and colonization.  Traits affecting aerial dispersal also control many other important ecological functions so that “weedy” microbes may occupy distinct niches within communities.  Divergent biogeographic patterns between free-living and host-associated microbes suggest fundamental differences in the processes structuring these communities. Experiments showing feedbacks among the diversity of animal hosts, their microbiomes and the free-living community suggest that microbiome community assembly is a form of niche construction for macro-organisms.