Before revision:  Here, we demonstrate the utility of this approach by showing that the Microbial Consumer Resource Model (MiCRM) - a minimal model for microbial communities with resource competition, metabolic crossfeeding and stochastic colonization -- can qualitatively reproduce patterns found in survey data including compositional gradients, dissimilarity/overlap correlations, richness/harshness correlations, and nestedness of community composition.
After revision:  Here, we demonstrate the utility of this approach by showing that the Microbial Consumer Resource Model (MiCRM) -- a minimal model for microbial communities with resource competition, metabolic crossfeeding and stochastic colonization -- can qualitatively reproduce patterns found in survey data including compositional gradients, dissimilarity/overlap correlations, richness/harshness correlations, and nestedness of community composition.