The advent of relatively inexpensive tools for characterizing microbial communities has led to an explosion of research exploring the diversity, ecology, and evolution of microbe-host systems. Some now question whether existing conceptual frameworks are adequate to explain microbe-host systems. One popular paradigm is the "holobiont-hologenome," which argues that a host and its microbiome evolv...

This article examines the moral world of therapeutic penal communities through lens experiences men with sexual convictions and histories victimisation. Drawing on concepts lateral power stigma, we discuss how Therapeutic Communities (TCs), which are intensely social communities, operate within three dimensions: institutional set norms, con code, broader sociocultural norms that stigmatise offe...

Multiple forces structure natural microbial communities, but the relative roles and interactions of these drivers are poorly understood. Gradients of physical and chemical parameters can be especially influential. In traditional ecological theory, variability in environmental conditions across space and time represents habitat heterogeneity, which may shape communities. Here we used aquatic mic...

Cold-water corals are azooxanthellate species found throughout the ocean at water depths down to 5000 m. They occur in patches, reefs or large mound structures up to 380 m high, and as ecosystem engineers create important habitats for a diverse fauna. However, the majority of these habitats are now within reach of deep-sea bottom trawling. Many have been severely damaged or are under threat, de...

Marine free-living nematode communities were studied at similar depths (~500 m) at two sides of the Antarctic Peninsula, characterised by different environmental and oceanographic conditions. At the Weddell Sea side, benthic communities are influenced by cold deep-water formation and seasonal sea-ice conditions, whereas the Drake Passage side experiences milder oceanic conditions and strong dyn...

Variations in bacterial and viral community compositions were examined over spatial scales ranging from centimeters to kilometers and over temporal scales of days to months in Danish coastal environments by means of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), respectively. Despite several-fold differences in bacterial activity and chlorophyll a, w...

Two examples are given of strong relationships between the activity of soil animals and the development of humus forms in a mountain spruce forest and a lowland Scots pine stand. Both were based on field distributions of fauna and humus components. The vertical heterogeneity of soil animal communities in a moder humus profile under Scots pine is related to successional processes occurring durin...