Chitin beads colonized with marine bacteria

Microbial interactions lead to rapid micro-scale successions on model marine particles

Abstract

Here, we track the taxon and trait dynamics of bacteria attached to model marine particles and demonstrate that particle-attached communities undergo rapid, reproducible successions driven by ecological interactions. These results suggest that primary successions may shape particle-attached bacterial communities in the ocean and that rapid community-wide metabolic shifts could limit rates of marine particle degradation.

Publication
Nature Communications
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