Three decades of research have demonstrated that biodiversity can promote the functioning
of ecosystems. Yet, it is unclear whether the positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem …

Microplastics and nanoplastics are emerging pollutants of global importance. They are small
enough to be ingested by a wide range of organisms and at nano-scale, they may cross …

Organisms—especially microbes—tend to live together in ecosystems. While some of these
ecosystems are very biodiverse, others are not, and while some are very stable over time …

Co-culturing of cells in in vitro tissue models is widely used to study how they interact with
each other. These models serve to represent a variety of processes in the human body such …

Recent research has expanded our understanding of microbial community assembly.
However, the field of community ecology is inaccessible to many microbial ecologists …

Experience and memory of environmental stimuli that indicate future stress can prepare
(prime) organismic stress responses even in species lacking a nervous system. The process …

Tractable microbial communities are needed to bridge the gap between observations of
patterns of microbial diversity and mechanisms that can explain these patterns. We …

Recently, microbiologists have established the existence of biogeographic patterns among a
wide range of microorganisms. The focus of the field is now shifting to identifying the …

Highlights•Microbial interactions and system function are two ways to study
communities.•Natural microbial communities are difficult to define and to study.•Synthetic …

Kombucha, a fermented tea beverage with an acidic and effervescent taste, is composed of
a multispecies microbial ecosystem with complex interactions that are characterized by both …