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Cluster dispersal shapes microbial diversity during community assembly
Fig 2
Higher dispersal rates increase the contribution of dispersal to early community assembly.
Panels A and B show the mean number of clusters contributing to community assembly 
and the mean number of immigrants (i.e., dispersing microbes) n × 
as a function of the dispersal rate c for various cluster sizes n, respectively. In both panels, the simulated data are averaged over 104 microbial communities. The 95% confidence interval bars are smaller than the markers and therefore are not displayed in the figure. The solid lines represent our analytical predictions (see Eq 1). The two vertical dotted lines indicate key dispersal thresholds: 
, where the mean time between the first and second dispersal events equals the time to reach carrying capacity via replication, and c = r, where dispersal and replication rates are equal. Parameter values: replication rates 
, relative abundance of A in the pool 
, carrying capacity K = 105.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013918.g002