D. Padfield

Estimates of community stability using the invasion criterion are robust across levels of invader species richness

The paper tests if community stability estimates based on single-species invasions are robust when multiple species are invaded simultaneously in a microbial community.

Microbial community structure is affected by phage-resistance associated increases in host density

The paper shows that phage resistance in Variovorax sp. increases host density, altering microbial community structure by reducing conspecific density.

Macroevolutionary dynamics in micro-organisms: generalists give rise to specialists across biomes in the ubiquitous bacterial phylum Myxococcota.

The paper studies biome transitions in Myxococcota bacteria, finding that generalists facilitate transitions between specialists, supporting the jack-of-all-trades trade-off.

Tradeoffs of increasing temperatures for the spread of antimicrobial resistance in river biofilms

This study shows that higher temperatures increase natural ARG abundance in river biofilms but accelerate the loss of invading wastewater-born ARGs.

Copper reduces the virulence of bacterial communities at environmentally relevant concentrations

This study shows that high copper concentrations reduce bacterial community virulence but also decrease diversity and productivity in wastewater influent communities.

Bacterial colonisation dynamics of household plastics in a coastal environment

The paper tracks bacterial colonisation of household plastics in a coastal environment, finding rapid colonisation by diverse bacteria, including pathogens, regardless of polymer type.

Parallel evolution of phage resistance - virulence trade - offs during in vitro and nasal Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage treatment

The paper investigates phage resistance evolution in Pseudomonas aeruginosa during in vitro and nasal treatments, finding similar resistance dynamics and reduced virulence in resistant strains.

The impact of invader number on whole community invasions in biomethane-producing communities

This study examines how invader frequency affects community invasion in methanogenic systems, finding that invasion success does not correlate with functional changes.

rTPC and nls.multstart: a new pipeline to fit thermal performance curves in R.

The paper introduces an R pipeline for fitting thermal performance curves using nonlinear least squares regression, enabling reproducible and robust model fitting for biological rate data.

Experimental multi-species microbial (co)evolution results in local maladaptation

The paper co-evolves five microbial species in polycultures and monocultures, finding local maladaptation where evolved species show reduced growth in their evolved communities.

Characterising a stable five-species microbial community for use in experimental evolution and ecology.

The paper reports the stable coexistence of a five-species microbial community derived from soil microbes, demonstrating long-term stability and species identification through plate morphologies.

Spatial heterogeneity of an ecologically relevant environment accelerates diversification and adaptation.

The paper shows that spatial heterogeneity in soil compost promotes phenotypic diversification and accelerates adaptation in Pseudomonas fluorescens.

Temperature-dependent changes to host-parasite interactions alter the thermal performance of a bacterial host.

The study examines how temperature-dependent changes in a host-parasite interaction affect the thermal performance curve of a bacterial host.

Anthropogenic remediation of heavy metals selects against natural microbial remediation

The paper shows that liming acidic soils to remediate heavy metals reduces metal availability but selects against microbial taxa that naturally scavenge metals via siderophores.

Temperature-driven selection on metabolic traits increases the strength of an algal-grazer interaction in naturally warmed streams

The paper investigates how temperature affects algal-grazer interactions in warmed streams, finding stronger interactions at higher temperatures due to increased metabolic rates and consumption.

Thermal adaptation constrains the temperature dependence of ecosystem metabolism

The paper shows that thermal adaptation reduces the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem metabolism in geothermally heated streams, with GPP rates independent of temperature after accounting for biomass differences.