Modelling nutritional mutualisms: challenges and opportunities for data integration

6Citations
Citations of this article
87Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Nutritional mutualisms are ancient, widespread, and profoundly influential in biological communities and ecosystems. Although much is known about these interactions, comprehensive answers to fundamental questions, such as how resource availability and structured interactions influence mutualism persistence, are still lacking. Mathematical modelling of nutritional mutualisms has great potential to facilitate the search for comprehensive answers to these and other fundamental questions by connecting the physiological and genomic underpinnings of mutualisms with ecological and evolutionary processes. In particular, when integrated with empirical data, models enable understanding of underlying mechanisms and generalisation of principles beyond the particulars of a given system. Here, we demonstrate how mathematical models can be integrated with data to address questions of mutualism persistence at four biological scales: cell, individual, population, and community. We highlight select studies where data has been or could be integrated with models to either inform model structure or test model predictions. We also point out opportunities to increase model rigour through tighter integration with data, and describe areas in which data is urgently needed. We focus on plant-microbe systems, for which a wealth of empirical data is available, but the principles and approaches can be generally applied to any nutritional mutualism.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Clark, T. J., Friel, C. A., Grman, E., Shachar-Hill, Y., & Friesen, M. L. (2017, September 1). Modelling nutritional mutualisms: challenges and opportunities for data integration. Ecology Letters. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12810

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free