Open access textbook about paleontology for advanced high school and introductory level college students.https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Although they’re microscopically small, microbes have critical effects on the world around them. The development of new technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled scientists to examine what shapes microbial communities in the wild. A novel concept, Phylogenetic Core Groups (PCGs), aims to search for a taxonomic classification revealing the selective forces imposed by the environment, hence, complementing traditional classification methods. But because microbial communities are sensitive to environmental fluctuations and we observe only a small fraction of these communities, it is difficult to disentangle these selective forces from community composition only. A new study proposes an improved conceptual framework to refine the determination of PCGs. Starting with a regional pool of microbial species, scientists can observe changes in the community composition and relate these changes to environmental variables. Determining the relative contribution of stochastic vs..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
This outline was created to be used by my online Fundamentals of Biology students at West Hills College, Lemoore. It is intended to be used with Concepts of Biology by Open Stax.