Although migrations are essential for soil microorganisms to exploit scarce and heterogeneously distributed resources, bacterial mobility in soil remains poorly studied due to experimental limitations. In this study, time-lapse images collected using live microscopy techniques captured collective and coordinated groups of B. subtilis cells exhibiting \uffe2\uff80\uff9ccrowd movement\uffe2\uff80\uff9d. Groups of B. subtilis cells moved through transparent soil (nafion polymer with particle size resembling sand) toward plant roots and re-arranged dynamically around root tips in the form of elongating and retracting \uffe2\uff80\uff9cflocks\uffe2\uff80\uff9d resembling collective behaviour usually associated with higher organisms (e.g., bird flocks or fish schools). Genetic analysis reveals B. subtilis flocks are likely driven by the diffusion of extracellular signalling molecules (e.g., chemotaxis, quorum sensing) and may be impacted by the physical obstacles and hydrodynamics encountered in the soil like environment. Our findings advance understanding of bacterial migration through soil matrices and expand known behaviours for coordinated bacterial movement.
", "keywords": ["light sheet microscopy", "0301 basic medicine", "570", "0303 health sciences", "Bacteria", "transparent soil", "Evolution", "/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2400/2404", "Polymers", "Quorum Sensing", "15. Life on land", "Soil", "03 medical and health sciences", "Behavior and Systematics", "root colonisation", "Sand", "collective movement", "name=Ecology", "name=Microbiology", "B. subtilis", "co-ordination", "bacterial flocculation", "/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-022-01277-w.pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01277-w"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/The%20ISME%20Journal", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1038/s41396-022-01277-w", "name": "item", "description": "10.1038/s41396-022-01277-w", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1038/s41396-022-01277-w"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2022-07-07T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1111/ecog.05478", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-07-26T16:18:29Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2021-05-07", "title": "Multi\u2010taxa colonisation along the foreland of a vanishing equatorial glacier", "description": "Retreating glaciers, icons of climate change, release new potential habitats for both aquatic and terrestrial organisms. High\uffe2\uff80\uff90elevation species are threatened by temperature increases and the upward migration of lowlands species. Improving our understanding of successional processes after glacier retreat becomes urgent, especially in the tropics, where glacier shrinkage is particularly fast. We examined the successional patterns of aquatic invertebrates, ground beetles, terrestrial plants, soil eukaryotes (algae, invertebrates, plants) in an equatorial glacier foreland (Carihuairazo, Ecuador). Based on both taxonomical identification and eDNA metabarcoding, we analysed the effects of both environmental conditions and age of deglacierization on community composition. Except for algae, diversity increased with time since deglacierization, especially among passive dispersers, suggesting that dispersal was a key driver structuring the glacier foreland succession. Spatial \uffce\uffb2\uffe2\uff80\uff90diversity was mainly attributed to nestedness for aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial plants and soil algae, likely linked to low environmental variability within the studied glacier foreland; and to turnover for soil invertebrates, suggesting competition exclusion at the oldest successional stage. Pioneer communities were dominated by species exhibiting flexible feeding strategies and high dispersal ability (mainly transported by wind), probably colonising from lower altitudes, or from the glacier in the case of algae. Overall, glacier foreland colonisation in the tropics exhibit common characteristics to higher latitudes. High\uffe2\uff80\uff90elevation species are nevertheless threatened, as the imminent extinction of many tropical glaciers will affect species associated to glacier\uffe2\uff80\uff90influenced habitats but also prevent cold\uffe2\uff80\uff90adapted and hygrophilous species from using these habitats as refuges in a warming world.
", "keywords": ["Colonization", "[SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics", "550", "Early succession", "glacier retreat", "Sociology", "[SDV.EE.ECO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology", " environment/Ecosystems", "Environmental DNA Sequencing", "Glacier", "Ecology", "Geography", "early succession", "Life Sciences", "Phylogenetics and taxonomy", "Biodiversity", "[SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics", "Threatened species", "FOS: Sociology", "Multiple-taxa", "multiple-taxa", "Habitat", "[SDE]Environmental Sciences", "Physical Sciences", "environment/Ecosystems", "570", "Physical geography", "Population", "Global Diversity of Microbial Eukaryotes and Their Evolution", "[SDV.BV.BOT] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics", "Ecological succession", "Biochemistry", " Genetics and Molecular Biology", "Biological dispersal", "[SDV.BID.SPT] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics", " Phylogenetics and taxonomy", "equatorial glacier foreland", "Equatorial glacier foreland", "Glacier retreat", "Molecular Biology", "Biology", "Demography", "Marine Microbial Diversity and Biogeography", "Colonisation", "South America", "15. Life on land", "[SDE.BE] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology", "13. Climate action", "FOS: Biological sciences", "[SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology", "Environmental Science", "[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology", "early succession; equatorial glacier foreland; glacier retreat; multiple-taxa", "Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Monitoring"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/851699/2/rosero%202021.pdf"}, {"href": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.05478"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05478"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Ecography", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/ecog.05478", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/ecog.05478", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/ecog.05478"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2021-05-06T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "PMC9478162", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-07-26T16:28:25Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2022-07-07", "title": "Novel form of collective movement by soil bacteria", "description": "AbstractAlthough migrations are essential for soil microorganisms to exploit scarce and heterogeneously distributed resources, bacterial mobility in soil remains poorly studied due to experimental limitations. In this study, time-lapse images collected using live microscopy techniques captured collective and coordinated groups of B. subtilis cells exhibiting \uffe2\uff80\uff9ccrowd movement\uffe2\uff80\uff9d. Groups of B. subtilis cells moved through transparent soil (nafion polymer with particle size resembling sand) toward plant roots and re-arranged dynamically around root tips in the form of elongating and retracting \uffe2\uff80\uff9cflocks\uffe2\uff80\uff9d resembling collective behaviour usually associated with higher organisms (e.g., bird flocks or fish schools). Genetic analysis reveals B. subtilis flocks are likely driven by the diffusion of extracellular signalling molecules (e.g., chemotaxis, quorum sensing) and may be impacted by the physical obstacles and hydrodynamics encountered in the soil like environment. Our findings advance understanding of bacterial migration through soil matrices and expand known behaviours for coordinated bacterial movement.