Why is There So Much Fine Scale Microbial Diversity? Ecology and Evolution in High Dimensions.

Tune in for the live stream on YouTube or Twitter.

Abstract: The DNA sequencing revolution has revealed enormous microbial diversity.  Less well known is that, for many species, this extends down to much finer scales with strains, sub-strains, and sub-sub-strains coexisting, directly competing, and continually evolving. Why doesn’t  “survival of the fittest” drive most of these extinct?  The possibility that such diversity is a general consequence of the complexity of biology will be explored via simple models and statistical physics approaches to the interplay between ecology and evolution.