title: Phylogenetic organization of bacterial activity.
abstract: Phylogeny is an ecologically meaningful way to classify plants and animals, as closely related taxa frequently have similar ecological characteristics, functional traits and effects on ecosystem processes. For bacteria, however, phylogeny has been argued to be an unreliable indicator of an organism's ecology owing to evolutionary processes more common to microbes such as gene loss and lateral gene transfer, as well as convergent evolution. Here we use advanced stable isotope probing with (13)C and (18)O to show that evolutionary history has ecological significance for in situ bacterial activity. Phylogenetic organization in the activity of bacteria sets the stage for characterizing the functional attributes of bacterial taxonomic groups. Connecting identity with function in this way will allow scientists to begin building a mechanistic understanding of how bacterial community composition regulates critical ecosystem functions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Ember M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Morrissey
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Mau
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Egbert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: J Gregory
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Caporaso
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Natasja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van Gestel
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Center for Microbiomics and Human Health, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Cindy M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hayer
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Theresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: McHugh
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Jane C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbiomics and Human Health, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Lance B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Price
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7337-1887
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Hungate
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes