Beyond "Everywhere": Disentangling Dispersal Constraints of Aquatic Planktonic Diversity

Despite growing recognition of spatial, temporal, and stochastic influences, microbial community ecology is still often framed by the principle “everything is everywhere, but the environment selects.” Yet the mechanisms behind this process remain poorly understood, especially in complex communities such as aquatic plankton.

Adaptation to local conditions can be achieved through eco-evolutionary adaptation, external species recruitment via dispersal, or internal recruitment from dormant or rare taxa. However, the relative importance of these processes for shaping planktonic diversity is still unclear.

BEDDCAPD aims to disentangle these mechanisms to better understand planktonic community assembly. We will conduct controlled experiments in soda pans, which function as naturally isolated, easily manipulated “island habitats,” offering an ideal model system for identifying the drivers of community adaptation and assembly.