scholarly journals A unifying ecological theory of microbial biodiversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R Shoemaker ◽  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Ecological Theory ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Microbial Life ◽  
Synergistic Interactions ◽  
Number Dynamics ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Better Than

An ecological theory of microbial biodiversity has yet to be developed. This shortcoming leaves patterns of abundance, distribution, and diversity for the most abundant and diverse organisms on Earth without a predictive framework. However, because of their high abundance and complex dynamics, microbial communities may be underpinned by lognormal dynamics, i.e., synergistic interactions among complex stochastic variables. Using a global-scale compilation of 20,456 sites from a diverse set of natural and host-related environments, we test whether a lognormal model predicts microbial distributions of abundance and diversity-abundance scaling laws better than other well-known models, including the most successful macroecological theory of biodiversity, i.e., maximum entropy theory of ecology. We found that the lognormal explains the greatest percent variation in abundance, that the success of the lognormal increased with abundance while other models decreased, and that the lognormal was the only model to reproduce recently documented diversity-abundance scaling laws. Our unifying ecological theory of microbial biodiversity explains and predicts macroecological patterns based on dynamics that capture the complex large number dynamics of microbial life.

scholarly journals A macroecological theory of microbial biodiversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R Shoemaker ◽  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Power ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Microorganisms are the most abundant, diverse, and functionally important organisms on Earth. Over the past decade, microbial ecologists have produced the largest ever community datasets. However, these data are rarely used to uncover law-like patterns of commonness and rarity, test theories of biodiversity, or explore unifying explanations for the structure of microbial communities. Using a global-scale compilation of >20,000 samples from environmental, engineered, and host-related ecosystems, we test the power of competing theories to predict distributions of microbial abundance and diversity-abundance scaling laws. We show that these patterns are best explained by the synergistic interaction of stochastic processes that are captured by lognormal dynamics. We demonstrate that lognormal dynamics have predictive power across scales of abundance, a criterion that is essential to biodiversity theory. By understanding the multiplicative and stochastic nature of ecological processes, scientists can better understand the structure and dynamics of Earth’s largest and most diverse ecological systems.

scholarly journals A macroecological theory of microbial biodiversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R Shoemaker ◽  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Power ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Microorganisms are the most abundant, diverse, and functionally important organisms on Earth. Over the past decade, microbial ecologists have produced the largest ever community datasets. However, these data are rarely used to uncover law-like patterns of commonness and rarity, test theories of biodiversity, or explore unifying explanations for the structure of microbial communities. Using a global-scale compilation of >20,000 samples from environmental, engineered, and host-related ecosystems, we test the power of competing theories to predict distributions of microbial abundance and diversity-abundance scaling laws. We show that these patterns are best explained by the synergistic interaction of stochastic processes that are captured by lognormal dynamics. We demonstrate that lognormal dynamics have predictive power across scales of abundance, a criterion that is essential to biodiversity theory. By understanding the multiplicative and stochastic nature of ecological processes, scientists can better understand the structure and dynamics of Earth’s largest and most diverse ecological systems.

scholarly journals Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Scaling laws underpin unifying theories of biodiversity and are among the most predictively powerful relationships in biology. However, scaling laws developed for plants and animals often go untested or fail to hold for microorganisms. As a result, it is unclear whether scaling laws of biodiversity will span evolutionarily distant domains of life that encompass all modes of metabolism and scales of abundance. Using a global-scale compilation of ~35,000 sites and ~5.6·106 species, including the largest ever inventory of high-throughput molecular data and one of the largest compilations of plant and animal community data, we demonstrate similar rates of scaling in commonness and rarity across microorganisms and macroscopic plants and animals. We document a universal dominance scaling law that holds across 30 orders of magnitude, an unprecedented expanse that predicts the abundance of dominant ocean bacteria. In combining this scaling law with the lognormal model of biodiversity, we predict that Earth is home to upwards one trillion (1012) microbial species. Microbial biodiversity seems greater than ever anticipated yet predictable from the smallest to the largest microbiome.

scholarly journals Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Scaling laws underpin unifying theories of biodiversity and are among the most predictively powerful relationships in biology. However, scaling laws developed for plants and animals often go untested or fail to hold for microorganisms. As a result, it is unclear whether scaling laws of biodiversity will span evolutionarily distant domains of life that encompass all modes of metabolism and scales of abundance. Using a global-scale compilation of ~35,000 sites and ~5.6·106 species, including the largest ever inventory of high-throughput molecular data and one of the largest compilations of plant and animal community data, we demonstrate similar rates of scaling in commonness and rarity across microorganisms and macroscopic plants and animals. We document a universal dominance scaling law that holds across 30 orders of magnitude, an unprecedented expanse that predicts the abundance of dominant ocean bacteria. In combining this scaling law with the lognormal model of biodiversity, we predict that Earth is home to upwards one trillion (1012) microbial species. Microbial biodiversity seems greater than ever anticipated yet predictable from the smallest to the largest microbiome.

scholarly journals Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Scaling Relationship ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Scaling laws underpin unifying theories of biodiversity and are among the most predictively powerful relationships in biology. However, scaling laws developed for plants and animals often go untested or fail to hold for microorganisms. As a result, it is unclear whether scaling laws of biodiversity span evolutionarily distant domains of life that encompass all modes of metabolism and scales of abundance. Using a global-scale compilation of ~35,000 sites and ~5.6·106 species, we demonstrate similar rates of scaling in commonness and rarity across microorganisms and macroscopic plants and animals. We document a universal dominance scaling law that holds across 30 orders of magnitude, an unprecedented expanse that predicts the abundance of dominant ocean bacteria. In combining this scaling law with the lognormal model of species abundance, we predict that Earth is home to ~1012 microbial species. This estimate is also supported by the microbial richness scaling relationship we derive from the largest ever inventory of high-throughput molecular data. Microbial biodiversity seems greater than ever anticipated yet predictable from the smallest to the largest microbiome.

scholarly journals Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J Locey ◽  
Jay T Lennon
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Scaling laws underpin unifying theories of biodiversity and are among the most predictively powerful relationships in biology. However, scaling laws developed for plants and animals often go untested or fail to hold for microorganisms. As a result, it is unclear whether scaling laws of biodiversity will span evolutionarily distant domains of life that encompass all modes of metabolism and scales of abundance. Using a global-scale compilation of ~35,000 sites and ~5.6·106 species, including the largest ever inventory of high-throughput molecular data and one of the largest compilations of plant and animal community data, we demonstrate similar rates of scaling in commonness and rarity across microorganisms and macroscopic plants and animals. We document a universal dominance scaling law that holds across 30 orders of magnitude, an unprecedented expanse that predicts the abundance of dominant ocean bacteria. In combining this scaling law with the lognormal model of biodiversity, we predict that Earth is home to upwards one trillion (1012) microbial species. Microbial biodiversity seems greater than ever anticipated yet predictable from the smallest to the largest microbiome.

scholarly journals More evidence for Earth's massive microbiome

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay T. Lennon ◽  
Ken J. Locey
Keyword(s):  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Sampling Theory ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Lognormal Model ◽  
Microbial Life ◽  
Global Biodiversity

Until recently, our planet was thought to be home to ~10^7 species, largely belonging to plants and animals. Despite being the most abundant organisms on Earth, the contribution of microbial life to global biodiversity has been greatly underestimated and, in some cases, completely overlooked. Using a compilation of data known as the Global Prokaryotic Census (GPC), it was recently claimed that there are ~10^6 extant bacterial and archaeal taxa [1], an estimate that is orders of magnitude lower than predictions for global microbial biodiversity based on the lognormal model of biodiversity and diversity-abundance scaling laws [2]. Here, we resolve this discrepancy by 1) identifying violations of sampling theory, 2) correcting for the misuse of biodiversity theory, and 3) conducting a reanalysis of the GPC. By doing so, we uncovered greater support for diversity-abundance scaling laws and the lognormal model of biodiversity, which together predict that Earth is home to 10^12 or more microbial taxa.

scholarly journals Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (21) ◽  
pp. 5970-5975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Locey ◽  
Jay T. Lennon
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Commonness And Rarity

Scaling laws underpin unifying theories of biodiversity and are among the most predictively powerful relationships in biology. However, scaling laws developed for plants and animals often go untested or fail to hold for microorganisms. As a result, it is unclear whether scaling laws of biodiversity will span evolutionarily distant domains of life that encompass all modes of metabolism and scales of abundance. Using a global-scale compilation of ∼35,000 sites and ∼5.6⋅106 species, including the largest ever inventory of high-throughput molecular data and one of the largest compilations of plant and animal community data, we show similar rates of scaling in commonness and rarity across microorganisms and macroscopic plants and animals. We document a universal dominance scaling law that holds across 30 orders of magnitude, an unprecedented expanse that predicts the abundance of dominant ocean bacteria. In combining this scaling law with the lognormal model of biodiversity, we predict that Earth is home to upward of 1 trillion (1012) microbial species. Microbial biodiversity seems greater than ever anticipated yet predictable from the smallest to the largest microbiome.

scholarly journals A seismically induced onshore surge deposit at the KPg boundary, North Dakota

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (17) ◽  
pp. 8190-8199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. DePalma ◽  
Jan Smit ◽  
David A. Burnham ◽  
Klaudia Kuiper ◽  
Phillip L. Manning ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Seismic Waves ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
River Channel ◽  
Impact Event ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Hell Creek Formation ◽  
Chicxulub Impact

The most immediate effects of the terminal-Cretaceous Chicxulub impact, essential to understanding the global-scale environmental and biotic collapses that mark the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, are poorly resolved despite extensive previous work. Here, we help to resolve this by describing a rapidly emplaced, high-energy onshore surge deposit from the terrestrial Hell Creek Formation in Montana. Associated ejecta and a cap of iridium-rich impactite reveal that its emplacement coincided with the Chicxulub event. Acipenseriform fish, densely packed in the deposit, contain ejecta spherules in their gills and were buried by an inland-directed surge that inundated a deeply incised river channel before accretion of the fine-grained impactite. Although this deposit displays all of the physical characteristics of a tsunami runup, the timing (<1 hour postimpact) is instead consistent with the arrival of strong seismic waves from the magnitude Mw∼10 to 11 earthquake generated by the Chicxulub impact, identifying a seismically coupled seiche inundation as the likely cause. Our findings present high-resolution chronology of the immediate aftereffects of the Chicxulub impact event in the Western Interior, and report an impact-triggered onshore mix of marine and terrestrial sedimentation—potentially a significant advancement for eventually resolving both the complex dynamics of debris ejection and the full nature and extent of biotic disruptions that took place in the first moments postimpact.

Unravelling the complex interplay between drought and conflict

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niko Wanders ◽  
Nina von Uexkull ◽  
Halvard Buhaug ◽  
Giulianno di Baldassarre
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Crop Failure ◽  
Marginal Lands ◽  
Economic Wealth ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Data Program ◽  
Agricultural Yields

&lt;p&gt;Climate change will likely exacerbate droughts, increase regional water demands and affect agricultural yields. In addition, projected population growth combined with lack of &amp;#160;&amp;#8216;good&amp;#8217; governance is likely to enhance the negative impacts of droughts and crop failure in the future as agriculture increasingly expands onto marginal lands. There is a global concern about these trends, because crop failure, droughts, increasing pressure on suitable agricultural land and rangeland for livestock, and changes and quality of governance can also increase the risk of conflict and (organized) violence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this presentation we explore the strength and impact of the climate-conflict trap., We use historical drought simulations and future drought projections to study the link between conflict and drought. Conflict data are taken from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and combined with hydrological simulations from the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results show that drought occurrence is expected to increase under all climate scenarios, with stronger impacts for the higher emission scenarios. &amp;#160;On the other hand, at the global scale conflicts are likely to reduce as increased economic wealth compensates for the increased climate vulnerability.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This work helps us to better understand the interplay between the natural hydrological system and society. To better understand unsustainable and potentially devastating pathways for the coming decades, we have the greater aim to start unravelling the complex dynamics between changes in drought, society and risk of conflicts.&lt;/p&gt;

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