Two optically transparent substrates enable the exploration of the ecophysiology and spatiotemporal organization and activities of bacteria and fungi within heterogeneous soil-like environments.

Resident members of natural bacterial communities limit the growth of non-resident bacteria primarily by increasing overall community growth.

Host characteristics drive the assembly of similar communities within the convergently evolved and geographically distant pitcher ecosystems of carnivorous pitcher plants.

Soil microbial diversity loss destabilizes the ability of the soil to function because greater diversity is needed to maintain temporal and functional asynchrony among different microbes.

A novel species-sorting experiment finds that phylogenetically and functionally distinct microbial communities emerge under different temperature conditions due to the resuscitation of latent diversity.

Rapidly diversifying biotic interactions decouple the dynamics of nearly identical strains.

Aquatic animals cocultured with rice in paddy ecosystems can increase food production, improve nitrogen (N)-use efficiency, and maintain soil fertility by reducing weeds, and promoting recycle and complementary use of N.

Increased root exudation rate under combined drought and bacterial inoculation and bacterial growth stimulation by specific exudation metabolites support the idea of root recruitment of beneficial bacteria, especially under water stress.

Analysis of microbial communities in floral nectar shows that it is possible to identify an overarching factor that governs the eco-evolutionary dynamics of priority effects across multiple levels of biological organization.

Plants show a high level of genetic diversity in their response to elevated CO₂, suggesting the presence of genetic mechanisms that will allow them to adapt to this environmental change.