ArticleBMC ecology2016
Vertebrate bacterial gut diversity: size also matters.
Article in BMC ecology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed.
- Host phylogeny and microbiome composition predict gut nematode community composition within a diverse assemblage of African herbivores.Biology letters · 2026Article
- Exploring the Development of Wild Microbiomes in the Eastern Fence Lizard.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- The island biology of the host microbiome.Trends in microbiology · 2026Review
- Spatial variation of skin-associated microbiota in a green salamander metapopulation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A relationship between body size and the gut microbiome suggests a conservation strategy.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Testing for Consistency in Co-occurrence Patterns Among Bacterial Taxa Across the Microbiomes of Four Different Trematode Parasites.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Exploring fecal microbial activity in zoo felids of varying body mass on a similar diet.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Archaeal diversity in the microbiomes of four wild bird species.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Gut microbiome reveals the trophic variation and significant adaption of three sympatric forest-dwelling ungulates on the eastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Host habitat shapes the gut microbiomes of insular reptilian hosts in the Philippines.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Host ecotype and rearing environment are the main drivers of threespine stickleback gut microbiota diversity in a naturalistic experiment.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- The role of host traits and geography in shaping the gut microbiome of insectivorous bats.mSphere · 2024Article
- Island biogeography theory provides a plausible explanation for why larger vertebrates and taller humans have more diverse gut microbiomes.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Article
- The ecology of scale: impact of volume on coalescence and function in methanogenic communities.Interface focus · 2023Article
- Body Size Poorly Predicts Host-Associated Microbial Diversity in Wild Birds.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Adoption of alternative life cycles in a parasitic trematode is linked to microbiome differences.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Wild microbiomes of striped plateau lizards vary with reproductive season, sex, and body size.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Comparative Analysis of Microbiome Metagenomics in Reintroduced Wild Horses and Resident Asiatic Wild Asses in the Gobi Desert Steppe.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Mammalian gut metabolomes mirror microbiome composition and host phylogeny.The ISME journal · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOne of the central issues in microbial ecology is to understand the parameters that drive diversity. Among these parameters, size has often been considered to be the main driver in many different ecosystems. Surprisingly, the influence of size on gut microbial diversity has not yet been investigated, and so far in studies reported in the literature only the influences of age, diet, phylogeny and digestive tract structures have been considered. This study explicitly challenges the underexplored relationship connecting gut volume and bacterial diversity.
resultsThe bacterial diversity of 189 faeces produced by 71 vertebrate species covering a body mass range of 5.6 log. The animals comprised mammals, birds and reptiles. The diversity was evaluated based on the Simpson Diversity Index extracted from 16S rDNA gene fingerprinting patterns. Diversity presented an increase along with animal body mass following a power law with a slope z of 0.338 ± 0.027, whatever the age, phylogeny, diet or digestive tract structure.
conclusionsThe results presented here suggest that gut volume cannot be neglected as a major driver of gut microbial diversity. The characteristics of the gut microbiota follow general principles of biogeography that arise in many ecological systems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.