All of the concepts that ecologists use to describe the continental-scale ecosystems that we see through satellites also apply to ecosystems in our bodies that we peer at with microscopes. We can talk about the diversity of microbial species. We can draw food webs, where different organisms eat and feed each other. We can single out keystone microbes that exert a disproportionate influence on their environment – the equivalents of sea otters or wolves. We can treat disease-causing microbes – pathogens – as invasive creatures, like cane toads or fire ants. We can compare the gut of a person
...more
main
