A Correlated Fitness Landscape Describes Growth in Experimental Microbial Ecosystems: Initial Results

This paper describes experimental tests of the biological notion that correlated fitness landscapes underlie the functioning of ecosystems. We have demonstrated that a correlated fitness landscape topology describes overall growth in microbial ecosystems as a function of species composition. This confirms the intuitive notion that the more similar the structures of ecosystems are, the more similar their functions will be. These methods and results provide opportunities for better understanding how ecosystems function. They also provide a rationale for using evolutionary computation in optimizing microbial ecosy stems.