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Microbial ecology: Here, there and everywhere

Nature Microbiology volume 1, Article number: 16123 (2016) Cite this article

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Deep sequencing of hydrothermal vent and upper ocean water samples further implicate the ocean as a microbial ‘seed bank’. Do these data finally reveal that everything is everywhere? To some extent, but questions remain as to whether these ocean-borne microbes are, in fact, viable and colonize distant locales.

Biogeography — the study of spatial and temporal patterns in biodiversity, and the forces that influence those patterns- has a long and illustrious history, harkening back to Aristotle and his interest in the distributions of desert animals1,2. Over the past three centuries, biogeography has developed into a diverse discipline with well-established frameworks that help explain the relevant roles of ecological processes and historical events in shaping the observed patterns in species and ecosystem distribution3.

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  1. Peter Girguis is at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-2020, USA.,

    Peter Girguis

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  1. Peter Girguis
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Correspondence to Peter Girguis.

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Girguis, P. Microbial ecology: Here, there and everywhere. Nat Microbiol 1, 16123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.123

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