Ecological Significance of Planktonic Marine Archaebacteria

9529804德龙本研究的主要目的是探讨一种新发现的海洋微微型浮游生物的丰富组分--浮游古细菌的生理特性、代谢活动及其生态学意义。近年来的研究结果表明，浮游海洋古细菌在海洋原核生物组合中分布广泛，数量相对丰富。现有数据表明，这些微生物可能会显着影响海洋微型浮游生物的碳和能量通量。此外，由于所有其他已知的古细菌都具有独特的代谢和生理特性，因此，浮游海洋古细菌很可能具有影响其生态功能的独特特征，并将其与其他原核微生物定性区分开来。本研究将调查浮游古细菌的定性特性，以及它们对圣巴巴拉海峡微生物量和生产的定量贡献。选择性地检测嗜热古细菌的存在，代谢产物和活动的方法将被用来评估其生态意义。古细菌的相对丰度和分布的测量将被用来估计他们的微微浮游生物量的贡献。将使用估计放射性标记掺入特定古细菌细胞代谢物（rRNA，脂质）的技术来确定营养物质进入代谢性古细菌代谢池的相对通量。这项研究将提供新的信息，无处不在，但很少了解海洋微型浮游生物的组成部分。这项研究的最终目标是将浮游海洋古细菌的独特性质、生物量和代谢活动与它们影响海洋中能量和物质流动的生物相互作用和生物地球化学过程联系起来。***

9529804 Delong The primary objective of this research is to investigate the physiological properties, metabolic activities and ecological significance of a newly discovered abundant component of marine picoplankton: planktonic marine archaebacteria. Recently results have demonstrated that planktonic marine archaebacteria are widely distributed and can be relatively abundant in marine prokaryote assemblages. Available data suggest that these microorganisms may significantly influence carbon and energy flux in marine picoplankton. In addition, since all other known archaebacteria have unique metabolic and physiological properties, it is quite possible that planktonic marine archaebacteria have unique characteristics which influence their ecological function, and qualitatively distinguish them from other prokaryotic picoplankters. This study will investigate the qualitative properties of planktonic archaebacteria, and their quantitative contributions to picoplanktom biomass and production in the Santa Barbara Channel. Methods that selectively detect planktonic archaebacterial presence, metabolites, and activities will be used to assess their ecological significance. Measurements of archaebacteria relative abundance and distribution will be used to estimate their contribution to picoplankton biomass. Techniques that estimate incorporation of radiolabel into specific archaebacterial cellular metabolites (rRNA, lipids) will be used to determine the relative flux of nutrients into planktonic archaebacterial metabolic pools. This study will provide new information on a ubiquitous but, little understood component of marine picoplankton. The ultimate goal of this research is to relate the unique properties, biomass, and metabolic activities of planktonic marine archaebacteria to the biological interactions and biogeochemical processes through which they influence flows of energy and matter in the sea. ***