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. 2005 Jun 24;308(5730):1884.
doi: 10.1126/science.1111318.

Larger islands house more bacterial taxa

Thomas Bell  1 , Duane Ager, Ji-Inn Song, Jonathan A Newman, Ian P Thompson, Andrew K Lilley, Christopher J van der Gast
Affiliations

Larger islands house more bacterial taxa

Thomas Bell et al. Science. .

Abstract

The power law that describes the relationship between species richness and area size is one of the few generalizations in ecology, but recent studies show that this relationship differs for microbes. We demonstrate that the natural bacterial communities inhabiting small aquatic islands (treeholes) do indeed follow the species-area law. The result requires a re-evaluation of the current understanding of how natural microbial communities operate and implies that analogous processes structure both microbial communities and communities of larger organisms.

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Comment in

  • Bacteria and island biogeography.
    Fenchel T, Finlay BJ. Fenchel T, et al. Science. 2005 Sep 23;309(5743):1997-9; author reply 1997-9. doi: 10.1126/science.309.5743.1997. Science. 2005. PMID: 16179459 No abstract available.
  • Bacteria and island biogeography.
    Mitchell EA. Mitchell EA. Science. 2005 Sep 23;309(5743):1997-9; author reply 1997-9. Science. 2005. PMID: 16184629 No abstract available.

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