genome binning techniques can produce draft genomes from
complex communities, but this is expensive and cannot target
specific functions.
A third challenge to studying spatially correlated organisms in
ecosystems with gradients is relating the groups’ diversities to
their environmental functions, especially if these organisms are
unrelated. Organisms in these groups could use similar resources,
as it is know that many traits are widespread in the tree of life,
or could have recently exchanged genes through horizontal gene
transfer. Unrelated organisms with similar distributions could
also be found together because they are part of multispecies, symbiotic
associations. The challenge lies in differentiating between
these or other possibilities.