Towards meaningful scales in ecosystem microbiome research

Abstract

This is a critical article that articulates on the main issues to be considered in properly addressing the problem of scale in ecosystem microbiome research. We aim at stimulating debate on this challenging and often neglected topic. We advocate that efforts towards defining and using meaningful scales in ecosystem microbiome assessments will promote study reproducibility and advance both conceptual and theoretical developments. This will also contribute to redirect research priorities to enhance our mechanistic understanding of taxa distributional patterns and the ecosystem functions they provide.

Topics & Concepts