Category Archives: community ecology

Have we got the power?

Posted on 9 Mar, 2017 by Stacy Krueger-Hadfield

Sabrina Heiser wrote this post as a final project for Stacy Krueger-Hadfield’s Science Communication course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Sabrina grew up in Germany, completed a BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology at Plymouth University (UK) and then lived … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, community ecology, evolution, haploid-diploid, natural history, NSF, population genetics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

When microbes can move mountains, studying microbial communities on glaciers

Posted on 18 Jan, 2017 by Kelle Freel

Bacteria are amazing, and as a recent article by Ambrosini and colleagues reminds us, they are quite literally, just about everywhere. Before reading this article, I have to admit, I was a little rusty on my definition of cryoconite holes, … Continue reading →

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I do not think it means what you think it means: "relic DNA" can obscure microbial diversity studies

Posted on 20 Dec, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Although microbes are small, they play an important part in both biogeochemical cycles in the ocean as well as on land. However, as they are not so easy to observe by eye, and in many cases can’t be cultured in … Continue reading →

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When the going gets hot the dinoflagellates (sometimes) get going, how viruses might affect coral symbionts

Posted on 7 Dec, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Corals represent more than meets the eye, they host intricate and interesting communities composed of dinoflagellates (also referred to as zooxanthellae), and a suite of microbes that include bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses. One such dinoflagellate that often shares … Continue reading →

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The importance of culturing the uncultured, delving into the microbial consortia in the human gut

Posted on 15 Nov, 2016 by Kelle Freel

The molecular side of ecology has grown by leaps and bounds in recent decades. The review we covered not too long ago, did a nice job of summarizing many key aspects highlighting the importance of this relatively new molecular view … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, genomics, medicine, metagenomics, microbiology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

There are more microbes than meet the eye: exploring the genomic diversity in an aquifer

Posted on 8 Nov, 2016 by Kelle Freel

First: it’s Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 – before you even think about putting your feet up and reading this post, I hope you’ve managed to wrangle yourself one of those highly prized “I voted” stickers. Now, on to more microbial … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community ecology, metagenomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Making ecology “count”: a review of the why and how of molecular ecology  

Posted on 25 Oct, 2016 by Kelle Freel

It’s likely that everyone has been asked by either a friend or family member “What do you do?” Which, depending on what level of detail you shoot for, might be relatively straight forward. The follow-up question, however, can be a … Continue reading →

Posted in bioinformatics, community, community ecology, metagenomics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

It's not the size that counts: teeny tiny SAR11 bacteria play a big role in our oceans

Posted on 11 Oct, 2016 by Kelle Freel

Microbes account for a huge chunk of the diversity on this planet, are essential in all sorts of biogeochemical processes, and we are still figuring out how everything is related. Teeny tiny bacterial cells are abundant both on land as … Continue reading →

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When your programming may be inadequate to the task: new options for metagenome analysis

Posted on 9 Sep, 2016 by Kelle Freel

There’s a lot of data in the form of metagenomes out there, and picking apart those mountains of data to uncover meaningful results is difficult. Recently, we received a suggestion from a reader to discuss a recent program (CLARK-S) developed … Continue reading →

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Respect the old but seek out the new: Direct 16S rRNA-seq from bacterial communities

Posted on 2 Sep, 2016 by Kelle Freel

I think it’s fair to say that it’s an ongoing struggle to figure out what the heck microbes are doing in their natural environments, and who those microbes are. Clearly, there is no silver bullet that gives us all the … Continue reading →

Posted in community ecology, microbiology, RNAseq | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment