A synthesis between evolutionary biology and community ecology has been emerging in the early 2000s, emphasizing that species evolution influences the processes of community assembly, and that, in turn, community context influences species evolution on the short and long term (Vellend & Geber 2005; Fussman et al 2007; Johnson & Stinchcombe 2007). This is not a paradigm shifts since these ideas are deeply rooted in ecology (Darwin was among the first ecologist!) but the convergence of new experimental and analytical techniques have allowed ecologists to really integrate these elements in a more comprehensive understanding of community ecology. In this context, microorganisms, and particularly bacteria have paved the way for a new experimental evolutionary biology, allowing ecologists to tackle directly the condition of emergence and dynamics of species diversity in complex environments (Jessup et al. 2004). Bacteria offer the unique opportunity to obtain rapid ecological and evolutionary responses using experimental designs that fulfill the assumptions of theoretical models. They are easy to grow in the lab, have rapid generation time, high population size and can be grown in small containers that allow the design of complex and robust experimental protocols.

Fussmann G.F., Loreau M. & Abrams P.A. (2007). Eco-evolutionary dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Functional Ecology, 21, 465-477. Jessup C.M., Kassen R., Forde S.E., Kerr B., Buckling A., Rainey P.B. & Bohannan B.J.M. (2004). Big questions, small worlds: microbial model systems in ecology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19, 189-197. Johnson M.T.J. & Stinchcombe J.R. (2007). An emerging synthesis between community ecology and evolutionary biology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 22, 250-257. Vellend M. & Geber M.A. (2005). Connections between species diversity and genetic diversity. Ecology Letters, 8, 767-781.

Interested by the questions related to coexistence and emerging properties in competitive communities, I have addressed the condition of emergence of species diversity in spatially and temporally heterogeneous environment. Working with the metacommunity perspective I could not help integrating elements of spatial dynamics into this experimental work. Most of this work have been done using the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens and Biolog GN2 microplates containing 95 unique sources of carbon to recreate a spatially heterogeneous environments. Question related to ecological specialization and traits selection and the evolution of diversity and the relationship between ecosystem functioning and biodiversity (BEF) were also addressed.