Seminar: John Davison

Belowground niches and community assembly

Niche differentiation is the basis of theories explaining biodiversity and coexistence. On the face of it, belowground microbes, which are often invisible and unculturable, do not seem a promising target for niche-based studies. However, metabarcoding approaches offer the possibility of estimating the distributions of microbial taxa along environmental gradients that collectively represent the realised niche. I will describe a recent study estimating the niche space occupied by different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal taxa, and show how this provides evidence about niche geometry and the ways in which soil fungal communities are assembled. I will also discuss potential improvements to the approach and ways to apply it more widely.