TABLE 1.

Glossary terms

Term	Definition	Reference(s)
Bayesian	Based on Bayes’ theorem that describes the probability of an event based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event	152
Community assembly
Coalescence	An emerging paradigm unique to microorganisms that considers the wholesale mixing of multiple communities and their surrounding environments, which can occur on a regular or intermittent basis and within a short period of time	96
Community	Group of organisms representing multiple species living in a specified place and time	29
Dispersal	The movement of organisms across space	29
Diversification	Changing phylogenetic diversity resulting from genetic and environmental variabilities	153
Drift	Random changes in the relative abundance of species due to chance variation amongst individuals	29
Priority effect	The order and timing of species immigration during community assembly can affect community composition	154
Selection	A deterministic fitness difference between individuals of different species in response to local abiotic and biotic conditions	29
Speciation	The creation of new species	29
Disturbance	A discrete unpredictable event that causes direct removal of living biomass, thereby altering community structure	155
Compounded disturbance	Multiple disturbances, either simultaneously or more frequent than the normal recovery time	111
Press disturbance	Transient, acute; relatively long-term, continuous event	16, 117
Pulse disturbance	Persistent, chronic; relatively discrete, short-term event	16, 117
Perturbation	Change in the level of function or population of a system due to a disturbance	24
Ecological network	Representation of possible links between species (nodes) within an ecosystem	73
Network connectance	Proportion of possible links between species (nodes) that are realized	156
Network modularity	The tendency of a network to be compartmented into separated clusters of interacting nodes	157
Niche filtering	A concept whereby the environment functions like a filter (or sieve) removing all species lacking specified combinations of traits	158
Node centrality	A measure of the importance of the node within the network	73
Ecosystem function	The biological, geochemical, and physical processes that take place or occur within an ecosystem	159
Functional redundancy	Where multiple species representing a variety of taxonomic groups can share similar roles in providing ecosystem functions	160
Multifunctionality	The ability of an ecosystem to provide multiple functions	161
Mycorrhizal fungi	Fungi forming a symbiotic association with plants	162
Resilience
Ecological resilience	Measure of disturbance required to move system from one stable state to another	17
Engineering resilience	Rate of recovery towards postdisturbance state	17
Resistance	Initial ability of a system to withstand disturbance	17
Stability	Inherent property of a system to remain unchanged in response to disturbance. Combines resistance, recovery, (engineering) resilience, and temporal stability	17, 25, 26
Temporal stability	The inverse of the variability around functional and compositional trajectories during the recovery phase	26
Rhizodeposition	The release of organic compounds from plant roots into the surrounding environment	163
Succession
Autogenic	Ecological succession driven by biotic factors	164
Secondary	Succession that follows a disturbance	165