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1. Plant communities in Chicago residential neighborhoods show distinct spatial patterns

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104663  

   Minor, Emily; Lopez, Bianca; Smith, Alexis; Johnson, Philip (April 2023, Landscape and Urban Planning)

   Residential yards and gardens can have surprisingly high plant diversity. However, we still do not understand all the factors that drive diversity in individual gardens, or how gardens scale up to create larger patterns of urban biodiversity. For example, social interactions between neighbors could affect whether they mimic each other’s yard design, affecting spatial turnover in plant communities. Further, socio-economic differences between neighborhoods might result in distinct plant assemblages across a city. In this paper, we used fieldwork, GIS, and spatial statistics to examine the variability in front yard vegetation—both cultivated and spontaneous plants—in 870 yards in Chicago, Illinois (USA). Our goals were to understand diversity and spatial patterning of plant communities in residential neighborhoods and how they vary with scale, considering alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. We addressed the following questions: (1) How do alpha, beta, and gamma diversity of cultivated and spontaneous plants vary between neighborhoods with different socioeconomic characteristics? (2) Within neighborhoods, do we see spatial autocorrelation in front-yard plant communities? If so, do those spatial patterns affect plant diversity at the neighborhood scale? We found diverse plant communities and distinct spatial patterns across Chicago. Richness and composition of both spontaneous and cultivated plants differed between neighborhoods, with some differences explained by socioeconomic factors such as education. Spontaneous and cultivated plants showed significant spatial autocorrelation, although that spatial autocorrelation generally did not influence neighborhood-scale diversity. Knowledge of these spatial patterns and their socioeconomic drivers could be exploited to increase adoption of environmentally-friendly yard management practices across a city. 

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2. The interplay between microbial communities and soil properties

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00980-5  

   Philippot, Laurent; Chenu, Claire; Kappler, Andreas; Rillig, Matthias C.; Fierer, Noah (April 2024, Nature Reviews Microbiology)
3. Microplastics affect sedimentary microbial communities and nitrogen cycling

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16235-3  

   Seeley, Meredith E.; Song, Bongkeun; Passie, Renia; Hale, Robert C. (May 2020, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Microplastics are ubiquitous in estuarine, coastal, and deep sea sediments. The impacts of microplastics on sedimentary microbial ecosystems and biogeochemical carbon and nitrogen cycles, however, have not been well reported. To evaluate if microplastics influence the composition and function of sedimentary microbial communities, we conducted a microcosm experiment using salt marsh sediment amended with polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane foam (PUF) or polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics. We report that the presence of microplastics alters sediment microbial community composition and nitrogen cycling processes. Compared to control sediments without microplastic, PUF- and PLA-amended sediments promote nitrification and denitrification, while PVC amendment inhibits both processes. These results indicate that nitrogen cycling processes in sediments can be significantly affected by different microplastics, which may serve as organic carbon substrates for microbial communities. Considering this evidence and increasing microplastic pollution, the impact of plastics on global ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling merits critical investigation. 

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4. Interfacial morphodynamics of proliferating microbial communities

   https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.23.563665  

   Martínez-Calvo, Alejandro; Trenado-Yuste, Carolina; Lee, Hyunseok; Gore, Jeff; Wingreen, Ned S; Datta, Sujit S (October 2023, bioRxiv)

   In microbial communities, various cell types often coexist by occupying distinct spatial domains. What determines the shape of the interface between such domains—which in turn influences the interactions between cells and overall community function? Here, we address this question by developing a continuum model of a 2D spatially-structured microbial community with two distinct cell types. We find that, depending on the balance of the different cell proliferation rates and substrate friction coefficients, the interface between domains is either stable and smooth, or unstable and develops finger-like protrusions. We establish quantitative principles describing when these different interfacial behaviors arise, and find good agreement both with the results of previous experimental reports as well as new experiments performed here. Our work thus helps to provide a biophysical basis for understanding the interfacial morphodynamics of proliferating microbial communities, as well as a broader range of proliferating active systems. 

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5. Engineering temporal dynamics in microbial communities

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2021.10.009  

   Ronda, Carlotta; Wang, Harris H (February 2022, Current Opinion in Microbiology)