FIG 1.

Experimental setup used to test factors driving composition and functional outcomes of microbial community invasions. In phase I, four microbial suspensions created from soils were used to inoculate microcosms in order to establish many replicates of complex communities in plant litter and R2A agar substrates. In phase II we conducted microbial community invasions, while varying four factors, including dose, frequency, and introduced and resident communities (see Materials and Methods for details).