Scientists have created an advanced model aimed at exploring the role of neutral evolution in the biogeographic distribution of ocean microbes. Over the past sev­eral decades, ecol­o­gists have come to under­stand that both natural selec­tion and neu­tral evolution -- that vari­a­tion within and between species is caused by genetic drift and random mutations -- play a role in the bio­geo­graphic pat­terns of ocean microbes. New results flew in the face of the long held notion that microbes are infi­nitely mobile....