Microbial competition and evolution in natural porous environments: Not that simple

In their recent article, Coyte et al. (1) use an innovative combination of microfluidic experiments, mechanistic models, and game theory to study the impact of physical microenvironments on the activity of bacteria in porous media. The authors find that hydrodynamics can profoundly affect how bacteria compete and evolve in these systems. They indicate that this conclusion could in principle have important implications for the management of a range of engineered and natural porous media. However, two aspects of the research significantly limit its relevance to practical applications, especially in soils and sediments.