The distribution of abundance trajectories rapidly converged to a nearly deterministic path, with small fluctuations, despite variations in initial conditions, environmental perturbations, and intrinsic noise, indicative of homeorhesis. To directly study succession in these ecosystems, we deliberately varied the initial cell abundances over replicates and quantified the ensuing dynamics. Here, we present simplified, two-species microbial ecosystems consisting of algae and ciliates, imaged in toto at single-cell resolution with fluorescence microscopy over a period of 1 to 2 weeks. We previously found that population dynamics in carefully controlled, replicated synthetic microbial ecosystems were strongly deterministic over several months. Direct quantitation of the degree of contingency in succession requires chronological study of replicate ecosystems. The dynamics of ecological change following a major perturbation, known as succession, are influenced by random processes.
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