Understanding the mechanisms controlling community diversity, functions, succession, and
biogeography is a central, but poorly understood, topic in ecology, particularly in microbial …

Deterministic theories in community ecology suggest that local, niche-based processes,
such as environmental filtering, biotic interactions and interspecific trade-offs largely …

Understanding the community assembly mechanisms controlling biodiversity patterns is a
central issue in ecology. Although it is generally accepted that both deterministic and …

Metacommunity ecology links smaller-scale processes that have been the provenance of
population and community ecology—such as birth-death processes, species interactions …

A plethora of different theories, models, and concepts make up the field of community
ecology. Amid this vast body of work, is it possible to build one general theory of ecological …

Community assembly of crop-associated fungi is thought to be strongly influenced by
deterministic selection exerted by the plant host, rather than stochastic processes. Here we …

Unraveling the drivers of community structure and succession in response to environmental
change is a central goal in ecology. Although the mechanisms shaping community structure …

A major goal of microbial community ecology is to understand the forces that structure
community composition. Deterministic selection by specific environmental factors is …

The order and timing of species immigration during community assembly can affect species
abundances at multiple spatial scales. Known as priority effects, these effects cause …

A central current debate in community ecology concerns the relative importance of
deterministic versus stochastic processes underlying community structure. However, the …