Patterns in plant and animal community succession are well-studied and explaining these patterns has occupied ecologists for decades. In contrast, patterns in microbial community succession have received very little attention despite the fact that the majority of the biological diversity on Earth is microbial and microorganisms play a key role in a wide range of biogeochemical processes. We would expect similar processes to govern microbial and ‘macro’-bial community succession even though such processes will occur at far faster rates in microbial communities.

Results/Conclusions

Here we present results from two very different habitats, the plant leaf surface and decomposing litter, demonstrating the similarities (and some key differences) between microbial and ‘macro’-bial community succession. The leaf surface provides a unique system in which to study primary community succession as we were able to track changes in bacterial community succession throughout the lifetime of a leaf, from the initial bacterial colonization following leaf emergence to leaf fall. The patterns in bacterial succession on the leaf surface were predictable but the changes in phylogenetic diversity were distinct from those patterns commonly observed in plant communities. In contrast, microbial succession on decomposing litter was not as predictable as successional patterns were strongly influenced by both litter type and the initial inoculum. Together these studies demonstrate the utility of using studies of microbial community succession to improve our understanding of microbial ecology and microbial interactions. At the same time, we can use microbial communities as ‘model systems’ to study successional processes and to experimentally test hypotheses developed by theoretical ecologists.