Response of Bacterial Diversity of Increased Productivity

许多生态学家认为，生产力（生态系统中能量流动的速度）是对动植物多样性最普遍的影响之一。然而，人们对生产力和微生物多样性之间的关系知之甚少。最近在水生围隔生态系统中的初步观察表明，细菌多样性可能对生产力变化的反应与植物和动物多样性非常不同。在博士后奖学金启动资助下进行的研究将证实这些初步观察结果，并测试观察到的模式是否是1）样本量或实验设计的人为因素，2）由于测量细菌多样性和植物和动物多样性的不同相对尺度，或3）由于细菌生产力和多样性之间的根本不同关系。这将通过估计额外的围隔生态系统样品和生产力不同的池塘样品中的细菌多样性，并通过在较小规模和更广泛的生产力水平上重复围隔生态系统实验来实现。微生物代表了地球上大部分的生物多样性，在几乎所有的环境过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。因此，了解微生物多样性在自然界中是如何调节的非常重要。这项研究有可能产生关于地球上最多样化和最丰富的生物体的基本新知识。

9907797BohannanMany ecologists believe that productivity (the rate at which energy flows in an ecological system) is one of the most pervasive influences on animal and plant diversity. However, very little is known about the relationship between productivity and microbial diversity. Recent preliminary observations in aquatic mesocosms suggest that bacterial diversity may respond to changes in productivity very differently from plant and animal diversity. The research conducted under this Postdoctoral Fellowship Starter Grant will confirm these preliminary observations and also test whether the pattern observed was 1) an artifact of sample size or experimental design, 2) due to the different relative scales at which bacterial diversity and plant and animal diversity were measured, or 3) due to a fundamentally different relationship between productivity and diversity for bacteria. This will be accomplished by estimating bacterial diversity in additional mesocosm samples and in samples from ponds that vary in productivity, and by repeating the mesocosm experiments on a smaller scale and with a broader range of productivity levels. Microorganisms represent most of the earth's biodiversity and play a crucial role in almost all environmental processes. Understanding how microbial diversity is regulated in nature is thus of great importance. This research has the potential to generate fundamental new knowledge about the most diverse and most abundant organisms on earth.