Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1007/s00248-011-9927-3
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Title (Primary) The relevance of conditional dispersal for bacterial colony growth and biodegradation
Author Banitz, T. ORCID logo ; Johst, K.; Wick, L.Y.; Fetzer, I.; Harms, H.; Frank, K. ORCID logo
Source Titel Microbial Ecology
Year 2012
Department OESA; UMB
Volume 63
Issue 2
Page From 339
Page To 347
Language englisch
Abstract

Bacterial degradation is an ecosystem service that offers a promising method for the remediation of contaminated soils. To assess the dynamics and efficiency of bacterial degradation, reliable microbial simulation models, along with the relevant processes, are required. We present an approach aimed at improving reliability by studying the relevance and implications of an important concept from theoretical ecology in the context of a bacterial system: conditional dispersal denoting that the dispersal strategy depends on environmental conditions. Different dispersal strategies, which either incorporate or neglect this concept, are implemented in a bacterial model and results are compared to data obtained from laboratory experiments with Pseudomonas putida colonies growing on glucose agar. Our results show that, with respect to the condition of resource uptake, the model’s correspondence to experimental data is significantly higher for conditional than for unconditional bacterial dispersal. In particular, these results support the hypothesis that bacteria disperse less when resources are abundant. We also show that the dispersal strategy has a considerable impact on model predictions for bacterial degradation of resources: disregarding conditional bacterial dispersal can lead to overestimations when assessing the performance of this ecosystem service.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=11446
Banitz, T., Johst, K., Wick, L.Y., Fetzer, I., Harms, H., Frank, K. (2012):
The relevance of conditional dispersal for bacterial colony growth and biodegradation
Microb. Ecol. 63 (2), 339 - 347 10.1007/s00248-011-9927-3