Vila, Jean CCJean CCVilaJones, Matt LMatt LJonesPatel, MatishalinMatishalinPatelBell, ThomasThomasBellRosindell, JamesJamesRosindell2019-08-222020-01-292019-08-01Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2019, 3, pp.1162-11712397-334Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/72778Understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes determining the outcome of biological invasions has been the subject of decades of research with most work focusing on macro-organisms. In the context of microbes, invasions remain poorly understood despite being increasingly recognised as important. To shed light on the factors affecting the success of microbial community invasions, we perform simulations using an individual-based nearly neutral model that combines ecological and evolutionary processes. Our simulations qualitatively recreate numerous empirical patterns and lead to a description of five general rules of invasion: 1) larger communities evolve better invaders and better defenders; 2) where invader and resident fitness difference is large invasion success is essentially deterministic; 3) propagule pressure contributes to invasion success if and only if invaders and residents are competitively similar; 4) increasing the diversity of invaders has a similar effect to increasing the number of invaders; 5) more diverse communities better resist invasion.© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019.Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineEcologyEvolutionary BiologyEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyPROPAGULE PRESSUREINVASIBILITY RELATIONSHIPSCLONAL INTERFERENCEEVOLUTIONDIVERSITYBIODIVERSITYCOMPETITIONMODELECOLOGYSPEEDJournal Articlehttps://www.dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0952-9NE/L011611/1