Publications
Also on Google Scholar and ORCID.
In press & under review
Host health links infection history to survival during acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection
Proceedings of the Royal Society B Under review
An eco-evolutionary consumer-resource theory of host-microbe symbioses
Journal of Evolutionary Biology In press
2026
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123(6): e2524274123
Abstract
Energy is required for the expression and maintenance of complex traits. In many habitats, however, free energy available to support biosynthesis is in vanishingly short supply. As a result, many taxa have evolved persistence strategies that support survival in unfavorable environments. Among these is sporulation, an ancient bacterial program governed by a large genetic network that requires energy for both regulation and execution. Yet sporulation is a last resort, initiated when cellular energy is nearly exhausted. To resolve this paradox, we quantified the energetic cost of sporulation in units of ATP by integrating time-resolved genome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles. The full cost of the spore cycle, including both formation and revival, ranks among the most energy-intensive processes in the bacterial cell, requiring almost 1010 ATP and consuming about 10% of the total energy budget. The majority of this cost arises from translation, membrane synthesis, and protein turnover. Despite its considerable upfront investment, sporulation enables long-term survival and becomes optimal when harsh conditions extend over timescales of months or longer. This trade-off between immediate cost and delayed benefit helps explain when sporulation is maintained or replaced by alternative strategies. By incorporating our estimates into mechanistic models, we show how metabolic constraints shape sporulation efficiency, while genome-wide mutation accumulation data reveal that even modest energetic burdens can become visible to selection, influencing the evolutionary fate of this complex and widespread trait.
Biological Reviews 101(1): 195–220
Abstract
Coexistence is simultaneously one of the most fundamental concepts of ecology, and one of the most difficult to define. A particular challenge is that, despite a well-developed body of research, several different schools of thought have developed over the past century, leading to multiple independent, and largely isolated, branches of literature with distinct methodologies. Here, we provide a broad overview of the most common concepts and metrics currently used to detect and characterise ecological coexistence. We first introduce four classes of behaviour, which jointly describe the ways in which community dynamics can unfold: (i) the existence of a feasible steady state (or invariant set), i.e. where all coexisting species retain positive abundances in the long-term in the absence of interference by external forces; (ii) the existence of a local attractor that draws the community towards a feasible steady state from within a restricted set of starting conditions; (iii) the existence of a global attractor that draws the community towards feasible steady states from any non-zero starting condition; and (o) a null transient state, where species abundances vary over time irrespective of steady states and attractors. Next, we explain how these classes of behaviour relate to commonly used metrics for identifying and characterising coexistence, including analyses of parameter sensitivity, asymptotic return rates, invasion growth rates, and time to extinction. We then discuss the scope and limitations of each of these behavioural classes and corresponding metrics, with a particular focus on applications in empirical systems. Finally, we provide a potential workflow for matching empirical questions to theoretical tools, and present a brief prospectus looking forward to opportunities for advancing and integrating research on coexistence.
2025
mSphere e00953-24
* Equal contribution
2023
Nature Communications 14: 3507
Abstract
Temperature and biodiversity changes occur in concert, but their joint effects on ecological stability of natural food webs are unknown. Here, we assess these relationships in 19 planktonic food webs. We estimate stability as structural stability (using the volume contraction rate) and temporal stability (using the temporal variation of species abundances). Warmer temperatures were associated with lower structural and temporal stability, while biodiversity had no consistent effects on either stability property. While species richness was associated with lower structural stability and higher temporal stability, Simpson diversity was associated with higher temporal stability. The responses of structural stability were linked to disproportionate contributions from two trophic groups (predators and consumers), while the responses of temporal stability were linked both to synchrony of all species within the food web and distinctive contributions from three trophic groups (predators, consumers, and producers). Our results suggest that, in natural ecosystems, warmer temperatures can erode ecosystem stability, while biodiversity changes may not have consistent effects.
Molecular Ecology 32(13): 3733–3746
2022
Microbiome 10: 225
Ecosphere 13(12): e4328
2021
Ecology Letters 24(7): 1474–1486
Abstract
Ecological stability refers to a family of concepts used to describe how systems of interacting species vary through time and respond to disturbances. Because observed ecological stability depends on sampling scales and environmental context, it is notoriously difficult to compare measurements across sites and systems. Here, we apply stochastic dynamical systems theory to derive general statistical scaling relationships across time, space, and ecological level of organisation for three fundamental stability aspects: resilience, resistance, and invariance. These relationships can be calibrated using random or representative samples measured at individual scales, and projected to predict average stability at other scales across a wide range of contexts. Moreover deviations between observed vs. extrapolated scaling relationships can reveal information about unobserved heterogeneity across time, space, or species. We anticipate that these methods will be useful for cross-study synthesis of stability data, extrapolating measurements to unobserved scales, and identifying underlying causes and consequences of heterogeneity.
Microorganisms 9(4): 840
2020
Ecology Letters 23(6): 983–993
Abstract
Although numerous studies show that communities are jointly influenced by predation and competitive interactions, few have resolved how temporal variability in these interactions influences community assembly and stability. Here, we addressed this challenge in experimental microbial microcosms by employing empirical dynamic modelling tools to: (1) detect causal interactions between prey species in the absence and presence of a predator; (2) quantify the time-varying strength of these interactions and (3) explore stability in the resulting communities. Our findings show that predators boost the number of causal interactions among community members, and lead to reduced dynamic stability, but higher coexistence among prey species. These results correspond to time-varying changes in species interactions, including emergence of morphological characteristics that appeared to reduce predation, and indirectly facilitate growth of predator-susceptible species. Jointly, our findings suggest that careful consideration of both context and time may be necessary to predict and explain outcomes in multi-trophic systems.
2019
Scientific Reports 9(1)
* Equal contribution
PhD thesis, Leipzig University
2018
Scientific Reports 8: 2968
Journal of Applied Microbiology 124(2): 491–502
2017
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