PARENT SESSION
Monday, August 7, 8:00-11:30 am
Symposium 3 - Integrating microbial ecology into the general science of ecology: opportunities and challenges
Ballroom B, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center
Organized by: BJM Bohannan (bohannan@stanford.edu)

The integration of microbial ecology into the general science of ecology has become both a major challenge and an exciting opportunity for ecologists; this symposium will present successful examples of such integration and address how this integration can be accelerated in the future.

Comparative ecology of microorganisms and macroorganisms.

Andrews, John^*,1, ¹ University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

ABSTRACT- Although every organism is unique in detail, all share fundamental properties and all have been shaped by evolution. All survivors would be expected to show some common and analogous responses to natural selection. A comparative ecology of microorganisms and macroorganisms can be developed within the general framework of the individual as an input/output system. Each individual acquires resources as input, marshals them among the competing demands for growth, maintenance, and reproduction, and produces progeny as output. Within this general model, organism biology can be analyzed and compared from various perspectives, including genetic variation, nutritional mode, size, growth dynamics and growth form (modular or unitary), life cycle, and environment. Ecological concepts that have been elegantly developed for macroorganisms can be tested precisely and mechanistically by microbial systems; conversely, studies in microbial ecology, which are increasingly reductionist, can be guided insightfully by ecological theory developed for plants and animals.

Key words: theory, comparative ecology, microorganism