The type of bacterial flora in any local microenvironment depends either on local conditions (nutrients availability, pH, pO2, temperature, host immune system) either on metabolic features of colonizing bacterial strains, that in turn affect the host behavior.
The Bacterial Flora of Humans
Tending the Body’s Microbial Garden, New York Times 2 july 2012
Microbiota-Targeted Therapies: An Ecological Perspective, 2012
The Application of Ecological Theory Toward an Understanding of the Human Microbiome, 2012
- The human-microbial ecosystem plays a variety of important roles in human health and disease.
Each person can be viewed as an island-like “patch” of habitat occupied by microbial assemblages
formed by the fundamental processes of community ecology: dispersal, local diversification,
environmental selection, and ecological drift. Community assembly theory, and metacommunity
theory in particular, provides a framework for understanding the ecological dynamics of the human
microbiome, such as compositional variability within and between hosts. We explore three core
scenarios of human microbiome assembly: development in infants, representing assembly in
previously unoccupied habitats; recovery from antibiotics, representing assembly after disturbance; and invasion by pathogens, representing assembly in the context of invasive species. Judiciousapplication of ecological theory may lead to improved strategies for restoring and maintaining the microbiota and the crucial health-associated ecosystem services that it provides.
Local Microenvironments
Strategies to establish a healthy environment
