Cluster dispersal shapes microbial diversity during community assembly
Fig 7
Cluster dispersal increases α-diversity and decreases β-diversity.
Panels A and C show the richness as a function of the dispersal rate and cluster size, respectively, where C focuses on the low-dispersal regime. The simulated data are averaged over 103 stochastic replicates (i.e., microbial communities). The 95% confidence interval bars are smaller than the markers and therefore are not displayed in the figure. Panels B and D represent the Jaccard distance as a function of the dispersal rate and cluster size, respectively, where D focuses on the low-dispersal regime. The data points are averaged over the comparison of each pair of 103 stochastic replicates (i.e., microbial communities). The solid lines represent our analytical predictions (Eqs 6 and 9). In panels A and B, the two vertical dotted lines correspond to key dispersal thresholds: , which approximates the mean time between the first dispersal event and reaching carrying capacity through replication alone [18], and c = r, where the dispersal rate equals the replication rate. In panels B and D, the dashed line represents the exact Jaccard distance for n = 1 (i.e.,
−
. Parameter values: replication rate r = 1, dispersal rate c = 10−4 (in C and D), number of species S = 7, relative abundance of each species in the pool p = 1/S, carrying capacity K = 105.