Community-level selection: Empirical tests in a microbial system.

鉴于社区层面的选择问题是一个长期存在争议的问题，拟议中的工作的主要好处将是增加对澳大利亚作为进化生物学研究国家的地位的认识。这项工作将在实证系统中对这一想法进行批判性的测试。在探索废水处理的关键组成部分--絮体形成机理方面，这项工作将为提高废水处理效率奠定重要基础。仅提高几个百分点的业绩就会带来重要的经济节省。最近承诺提供2300亿美元，用于在5年内提高德国、意大利和西班牙的废水处理效率，证明了这一点。

Given the profile of the question of community-level selection as a long-running controversy, the main benefit of the proposed work, which will critically test the idea in an empirical system, will be to increase recognition of Australia's position as a research nation in evolutionary biology. In exploring mechanisms of floc formation, a key component of wastewater treatment, the work will establish important foundations for improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment. Improvement in performance of only a few percent will bring important economic savings. This is evidenced by recent commitment of >$US 230 billion to improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment in Germany, Italy and Spain over 5 years.