digging deeper ecological niches answer key

High-throughput sequencing combined with cultivation-independent methods continue to reveal a fuller tree of life, expanding our knowledge of evolution and of phylogenetic relationships in biology, which are dominated by microbial lineages ( Hug et al., 2016). High-throughput sequencing methods have offered new insight into the extent and limits of microbial diversity, and have spurred new research interests in diversity, including understanding the rare microbial biosphere ( Lynch and Neufeld, 2015) and microbial dark matter ( Marcy et al., 2007).

Relative to our planet’s better-described communities of macrofauna, microbial communities are a trove of untapped and unknown diversity. Microbial ecologists have a particular interest in diversity, as microbial diversity is expansive, and many microbial communities have near-innumerable membership ( Locey and Lennon, 2016). Once ecological mechanisms are understood, ecologists strive to better predict, conserve or manage communities to desired outcomes. This research is pursued in an effort to build an understanding of the ecological processes of the world and to identify common patterns, with the ultimate goal of improving knowledge of universal mechanisms and building theoretical framework.

Ecologists report diversity estimates for a number of reasons, including to ask how patterns in diversity translate to ecosystem function or stability, or to understand how and why diversity changes over space and time. ‘The rock just sits and is.’ - Albert Markovskiĭiversity (the number and/or evenness, and types of taxa within a local community) is arguably one of the most fundamental concepts in community ecology.

Digging deeper ecological niches answer key