Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:00:02.759Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Patterns in prokaryotic biodiversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

M. Claire Horner-Devine
Affiliation:
School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Jessica Green
Affiliation:
School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA
Brendan J. M. Bohannan
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
N. A. Logan
Affiliation:
Glasgow Caledonian University
H. M. Lappin-Scott
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
P. C. F Oyston
Affiliation:
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The variety of life has long fascinated biologists. One of the most intriguing aspects of this diversity is that it is distributed heterogeneously across the Earth, with some places harbouring a myriad of different forms of life and others supporting depauperate communities. There appear to be regularities in this heterogeneous distribution, patterns in the distribution of life's diversity, for many well-studied macro-organisms. Until recently, relatively few patterns in the distribution of microbial life have been documented, in large part because microbiologists and ecologists have just recently begun to look for such patterns.

Diversity patterns have played a major role in the development of the science of general ecology (i.e. theoretical, plant, animal and ecosystem ecology). It is reasonable to assume that the study of diversity patterns could play a similar role in the development of microbial ecology. Where should one look for such patterns in microbial biodiversity? Given our limited knowledge of the distribution of microbial diversity, it is reasonable to start by looking for patterns in microbial diversity that are commonly observed for macro-organisms. In this chapter, we begin by discussing how diversity in general and microbial diversity in particular is estimated. We then describe a number of diversity patterns commonly observed for macro-organisms and review recent attempts to document such patterns in microbial diversity. We focus primarily on prokaryotic micro-organisms; however, patterns in the diversity of eukaryotic microbes have also been documented (e.g. Green et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2005).

Type
Chapter
Information
Prokaryotic Diversity
Mechanisms and Significance
, pp. 19 - 38
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×