Microbial biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships in marine reducing habitats

海洋减少生境中微生物多样性与生态系统功能的关系

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04530
• 负责人: Juniper, Kim
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709234
• 关键词: Microbial; biodiversity; ecosystem; function; relationships

Over the past 2 decades, marine ecology has seen a shift in focus from documenting biodiversity to wanting to understand the importance of biodiversity to the services that marine ecosystems contribute to human society and to our planetary support system. Ecologists assign functional traits or 'ecosystem job descriptions' to species and groups of species that define their role in ecosystems, from photosynthesis, nutrient cycling and predation to the production of fish stocks. On the other hand ecologists who study marine microorganisms have been comparatively slower to make this change in perspective. In part, this is because new, high throughput gene sequencing methods are providing marine microbiologists with information at a level that surpasses the development of meaningful ecological interpretation. This research program will focus on marine reducing habitats, where changes in dissolved oxygen cause shifts in microbial composition and metabolism. These gradients of environment change provide opportunities to directly observe relationships between microbial diversity, and the metabolic processes that microbes contribute to ecosystem function. Over the past several years my laboratory has developed or implemented a number of analytical tools that will be brought to bear on this question. A PhD student will study how seasonal changes in dissolved oxygen levels influence microbial community diversity, and the diversity of a particular group that causes nitrogen loss from marine ecosystems, in Saanich Inlet, a fjord on southern Vancouver Island. Two other students (PhD an MSc) will examine how marine microbes colonize habitats formed by other organisms. This ecological facilitation' creates hot spots for the concentration of microbial growth and chemical transformations that are important to ecosystem function. A 3rd PhD student will study the ecosystem role of protists, single-celled animals, at deep-sea hot springs. Our understanding of protists in these unique ecosystems is very limited. We thus begin with fundamental questions about where protist species are found at vents, the existence of a vent-specialized group of protists, and questions about how habitat conditions determine protist diversity and distribution in different hydrothermal habitats. This survey work will use gene sequence information to assess protist diversity in different vent habitats and identify key players. This basic taxonomic information will be used to construct functional portraits of vent protist communities, based on current knowledge and a new online database. It is easier to count species than to determine what they do in ecosystems, even for microbes. A postdoctoral fellow will join the project in the final year to synthesize data from all projects, and evaluate what biodiversity information can tell us about how marine microbes contribute to ecosystem services.

在过去的 20 年中，海洋生态学的重点已从记录生物多样性转变为希望了解生物多样性对于海洋生态系统为人类社会和地球支持系统提供的服务的重要性。生态学家为物种和物种群体分配功能特征或“生态系统工作描述”，定义它们在生态系统中的作用，从光合作用、营养循环和捕食到鱼类生产。 另一方面，研究海洋微生物的生态学家在改变观点方面相对较慢。部分原因是新的高通量基因测序方法为海洋微生物学家提供的信息水平超出了有意义的生态解释的发展水平。该研究计划将重点关注海洋减少栖息地，其中溶解氧的变化会导致微生物组成和新陈代谢的变化。这些环境变化的梯度提供了直接观察微生物多样性与微生物对生态系统功能的代谢过程之间关系的机会。在过去的几年里，我的实验室开发或实施了许多分析工具，这些工具将用于解决这个问题。 一名博士生将研究温哥华岛南部峡湾萨尼奇湾的溶解氧水平的季节性变化如何影响微生物群落多样性，以及导致海洋生态系统氮流失的特定群体的多样性。 另外两名学生（博士和硕士）将研究海洋微生物如何在其他生物体形成的栖息地中定居。这种生态便利化为微生物生长和化学转化的集中创造了热点，这对生态系统功能很重要。第三名博士生将研究深海温泉原生生物（单细胞动物）在生态系统中的作用。我们对这些独特生态系统中的原生生物的了解非常有限。因此，我们从以下基本问题开始：在热液喷口的何处发现原生生物物种、喷口专门的原生生物群体是否存在，以及栖息地条件如何决定不同热液栖息地的原生生物多样性和分布。这项调查工作将利用基因序列信息来评估不同喷口栖息地的原生生物多样性并确定关键参与者。 这些基本分类信息将用于根据当前知识和新的在线数据库构建喷口原生生物群落的功能肖像。 计算物种数量比确定它们在生态系统中的作用更容易，即使对于微生物也是如此。一名博士后研究员将在最后一年加入该项目，综合所有项目的数据，并评估哪些生物多样性信息可以告诉我们海洋微生物如何为生态系统服务做出贡献。