A model for disentangling ecological, evolutionary, and environmental drivers of functional organization in microbial ecosystems

The myriad species that form microbial ecosystems can often be meaningfully partitioned into a smaller number of functional classes. What governs this partitioning? Is it shaped by evolution, ecology, or environment — and can these contributions be disentangled? We describe how the relative contributions of these factors can be quantified, and use a minimal model to demonstrate distinct dynamical regimes that emerge depending on which factor dominates. Moreover, we show that the same underlying ecosystem can span multiple such regimes depending on the level of description chosen.