From competition to cooperation: Paradigm shifts in trait-based ecology change our understanding of the processes that structure microbial communities

Claudia Piccini; Melina Devercelli; Lilen Yema; Angel Segura; Marcela Bastidas Navarro; María B. Sathicq; Gabriela Martínez de la Escalera; Ana Martínez Goicoechea; Mariana Rodrigues Amaral Da Costa; Inés O'Farrell; Enrique Lara; Carla Kruk

doi:10.25260/EA.23.33.3.0.2093

Authors

Claudia Piccini Laboratorio de Ecología Microbiana Acuática, Departamento de Microbiología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable. Montevideo, Uruguay
Melina Devercelli Instituto Nacional de Limnología, INALI (CONICET-UNL); Instituto Nacional del Agua, Subgerencia Centro Regional Litoral, SCRL-INA; Instituto Universitario de Seguridad Marítima, Prefectura Naval Argentina, IUSM-PNA, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0464-2997
Lilen Yema Laboratorio de Limnología, IEGEBA (UBA-CONICET) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9166-1378
Angel Segura MEDIA, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Universidad de la República, Uruguay https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1989-8899
Marcela Bastidas Navarro Laboratorio de Limnología, INIBIOMA (CONICET-Universidad Nacional del Comahue). Bariloche, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6558-0451
María B. Sathicq Instituto de Limnología “Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet”, ILPLA (UNLP-CONICET). Buenos Aires, Argentina
Gabriela Martínez de la Escalera Laboratorio de Ecología Microbiana Acuática, Departamento de Microbiología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable. Montevideo, Uruguay https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-0777
Ana Martínez Goicoechea Laboratorio de Fitoplancton Tóxico, DINARA. Ecología Funcional de sistemas acuáticos, CURE https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0596-7862
Mariana Rodrigues Amaral Da Costa Departamento de Ecologia Pós Graduação em Ecologia Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brasil
Inés O'Farrell Laboratorio de Limnología, IEGEBA (UBA-CONICET) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2236-2905
Enrique Lara Real Jardín Botánico-CSIC. Madrid, España
Carla Kruk IECA, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Uruguay. MEDIA, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Universidad de la República, Uruguay https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0760-1186

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.23.33.3.0.2093

Keywords:

traits, ecological theory, cooperation, competition, biases

Abstract

Prevailing social, economic and political ideas and paradigms constitute the lens through which scientists observe, assess, and understand the world. This affects how we interpret and understand the mechanisms governing the interaction between organisms and has led, in most cases, to dominant explanations and paradigms that are difficult to overthrow. This is the case of ecological theory, whose perspectives have followed the rationale of societal changes. From the industrial revolution to very recently, species competition for resources was regarded as one of the main drivers of species interactions. Nowadays, a new and rapidly growing way of thinking emerged, fueled by the high sequencing capacities, ultra-resolution microscopy and the slowly growing number of different social and gender perspectives participating in ecological studies: that living beings are not just single organisms interacting with other single organisms, but complex communities of macro- and microorganisms living and evolving together. The information emerging from this field is bringing new light to previously disregarded aspects of the ecological interactions that, in our opinion, will change the main paradigms in ecology. As members of a South American scientific network of Aquatic Microbial Ecology (MicroSudAqua), here we propose to explore alternative explanations for ecological observations, searching for new traits accounting for cooperation between microorganisms as a fundamental evolutionary and ecological strategy.

* Photo: Hyalosphenia papilio (Amoebozoa; Arcellinida), an amoeba species that hosts endosymbiotic algae related to the genus Chlorella. These organisms live in boreal peat bogs, an oligotrophic environment where they obtain much needed nutrients through their photosynthesizing partners. The amoeba requires the alga to close its life cycle, and has never been observed without it. Image: Prof. Edward A. D. Mitchell

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