Modeling and Predicting Behaviors and Dynamics of Ecosystems

The functioning of ecosystems is nowadays understood as the result of interactions between various micro- and macroscopic organisms. These interactions, especially between microorganisms, have significant impacts on ecosystemic services (e.g. nutrient recycling, production of organic matter etc.). Although microbial abundance is a long-known fact, high-throughput genomic data have highlighted an amount of diversity that was unsuspected. These novel descriptions, however, remain one step towards the goal of elucidating, at the molecular level, the functioning of microbial ecosystems. To reach this goal, using dedicated models that mobilize the whole diversity of biotechnology resources is of fundamental importance.