35. Defining complexity in microbial ecosystems

• Microbial ecosystems are more than the sum of individual niches.
• Community structures: populations present, relative abundance of species, levels on which they interact (trophic, food web, genetic).
• Diversity and eveness
• Prerequisites for the study of microbial ecosystems: habitat physics, chemical conditions, organismic adaptation, niche diversification, genomic plasticity.
• Mass and energy flow through microbial ecosystems.
• Abiotic, biotic determinants which alter community structures.
• Macroecological patterns and events which regulate microbial ecosystems.
• Reconstructing microbial ecosystems.

• Chemical signaling between cells.
• Microbial life cycles.
• Behavior which leads to cell aggregation.
• Features of a hypothetical "minimum cell".