Collaborative Research: Comparative and Quantitative Studies of Protistan Molecular Ecology and Physiology in Coastal Antarctic Waters

合作研究：南极沿海水域原生生物分子生态学和生理学的比较和定量研究

• 批准号: 0125437
• 负责人: David Caron
• 金额: $ 39.89万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-03-15 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0125437&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Comparative; Quantitative; Studies

Caron0125437Phototrophic and heterotrophic protists are ubiquitous in extreme cold-water environments where they are central to the production and utilization of energy and the cycling of elements. The dominance of protists in Antarctic food webs indicates major ecological and biogeochemical roles for these unicellular eukaryotes. Understanding the structure and diversity of these communities, and the adaptations that allow these assemblages to flourish near the lower limit of temperature in the ocean, is of fundamental importance to biological oceanography and to understanding the activities and evolution of life on our planet. The diversity of protistan assemblages has traditionally been studied using microscopy and morphological characterization. Due to the tedious nature of this approach and the inherent lack of taxonomic characters associated with most small protists, these approaches are inadequate for ecological studies of these communities. Molecular methods that utilize gene sequences for the identification and quantitation of naturally occurring protists offer a solution to this problem. This project will address issues of protistan community structure, population abundance, and adaptation to life in extreme cold through molecular and physiological studies on assemblages in the seawater and ice habitats of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Research will focus primarily on species of phagotrophic protists (protozoa) which are ecologically important but for which no information currently exists. The work is designed to contribute new understanding concerning the biodiversity of protistan assemblages of coastal Antarctica, provide tools for ecological studies of these assemblages, and produce benchmark data on the basic physiological processes of protistan species in this extreme cold-water environment.

CARON0125437在极端的冷水环境中无处不在，在极端的冷水环境中，它们是能量生产和利用和元素循环的核心。原生物在南极食品网中的优势表明这些单细胞真核生物的主要生态和生物地球化学作用。了解这些社区的结构和多样性，以及使这些组合在海洋温度下限附近繁荣发展的适应，对生物海洋学至关重要，并了解我们地球上生命的活动和生命的演变。传统上，使用显微镜和形态表征研究了Protistan组合的多样性。由于这种方法的繁琐本质以及与大多数小生物有关的固有缺乏分类特征，因此这些方法不足以对这些社区的生态学研究。利用基因序列鉴定和定量天然生物的分子方法为这一问题提供了解决方案。该项目将通过分子和生理学研究，通过对海水和南极洲罗斯海的冰栖息地的分子和生理研究来解决极端寒冷的生命问题，以解决该项目的问题。研究将主要关注吞噬生物的物种（原生动物），这些物种在生态上很重要，但目前尚无信息。这项工作旨在为有关沿海南极洲沿海原始组合的生物多样性提供新的理解，为这些组合的生态研究提供了工具，并在这种极端冷水环境中提供了有关Protistan物种的基本生理过程的基准数据。