title: Interchange of entire communities: microbial community coalescence.
abstract: Microbial communities are enigmatically diverse. We propose a novel view of processes likely affecting microbial assemblages, which could be viewed as the Great American Interchange en miniature: the wholesale exchange among microbial communities resulting from moving pieces of the environment containing entire assemblages. Incidental evidence for such 'community coalescence' is accumulating, but such processes are rarely studied, likely because of the absence of suitable terminology or a conceptual framework. We provide the nucleus for such a conceptual foundation for the study of community coalescence, examining factors shaping these events, links to bodies of ecological theory, and we suggest modeling approaches for understanding coalescent communities. We argue for the systematic study of community coalescence because of important functional and applied consequences.
authors.affiliation: Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: matthias.rillig@fu-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Matthias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rillig
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antonovics
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Global Food Security, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.
authors.forename: Tancredi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Caruso
authors.affiliation: Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Anika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.affiliation: University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Richmond, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeff R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.affiliation: Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Stavros D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Veresoglou
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, PLECO (Plant and Vegetation Ecology), Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verbruggen
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D064307:Microbiota; D058974:Phylogeography; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
keywords: biodiversity; communities; community coalescence; environment; global change; metacommunity; mixing; networks