Available energy fluxes drive a transition in the diversity, stability, and functional structure of microbial communities

摘要

Author summary The diversity, stability and functional structure of microbial communities have dramatic effects on the health of humans and of ecosystems. The complexity of these communities has so far precluded the development of a general predictive model that would capture the dependence of these features on environmental conditions. We confronted this challenge by constructing a flexible simulation framework, and randomly sampling parameters under a variety of modeling assumptions to identify generic patterns. We found two qualitatively distinct regimes of community structure, which reproduce observed patterns of biodiversity, and make new predictions about stability and function.