title: Bacterial predator-prey dynamics in microscale patchy landscapes.
abstract: Soil is a microenvironment with a fragmented (patchy) spatial structure in which many bacterial species interact. Here, we explore the interaction between the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and its prey Escherichia coli in microfabricated landscapes. We ask how fragmentation influences the prey dynamics at the microscale and compare two landscape geometries: a patchy landscape and a continuous landscape. By following the dynamics of prey populations with high spatial and temporal resolution for many generations, we found that the variation in predation rates was twice as large in the patchy landscape and the dynamics was correlated over shorter length scales. We also found that while the prey population in the continuous landscape was almost entirely driven to extinction, a significant part of the prey population in the fragmented landscape persisted over time. We observed significant surface-associated growth, especially in the fragmented landscape and we surmise that this sub-population is more resistant to predation. Our results thus show that microscale fragmentation can significantly influence bacterial interactions.
authors: Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors: Felix J H
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8061-0826
authors: FJ
authors: Hol
authors: Department of Agroecology and Plant Health, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors: Or
authors: O
authors: Rotem
authors: Department of Agroecology and Plant Health, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors: Edouard
authors: E
authors: Jurkevitch
authors: Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.
authors: Cees
authors: C
authors: Dekker
authors: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 91904, Israel danikoster@gmail.com.
authors: Daniel A
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2129-1233
authors: DA
authors: Koster
mesh_terms: D001501:Bdellovibrio / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D020387:Food Chain
keywords: Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus; metapopulation; nanofabricated landscapes; predator–prey