How are microbial communities shaped by energy fluxes?
All organisms have power demands. Hence, the composition of biological communities – in terms of taxonomic groups, functional groups, genes and enzymes – must be constrained by energy fluxes.
The main objective of the Dahle group is to analyze connections between chemical power supply and microbial community structure and functioning. Our work includes purely theoretical analysis involving population dynamic modelling, but also field work studies which involve characterization of microbial communities through metagenomics and calculations of chemical energy fluxes through thermodynamic considerations.