SGER: An Analysis of Real Time Changes in Soil Microbial Community Structure in an Evolving Thermal Soil Environment

黄石国家公园（YNP）代表了一个独特的环境，其中发生了显著的地热活动。这些热区包括水生系统和土壤，在温度、化学和物理性质方面变化很大。这是一个观察、跟踪和量化土壤微生物种群因温度升高而发生变化的绝佳机会。通常，研究嗜热动物的重点环境是成熟的、确定的地热特征（相对于人类经验和已知记录）。这项先发制人的研究将利用自然发生的温度梯度，这些梯度最近在YNP的一个特定位置浮出水面。这些最近的变化提供了一个难得的机会，从而可以实时研究嗜热菌和/或嗜热菌群落的发展。与其他新热环境（如深海喷口）在后勤上难以进入不同，研究地点很容易进入和采样。利用分子和培养相结合的技术，研究了这种不断变化的热环境下的微生物群落，群落结构的明显变化与土壤温度和化学性质的变化有关。

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) represents a unique setting wherein significant geothermal activity occurs. These thermal areas include aquatic systems as well as soils, and vary significantly with respect to temperature, chemistry, and physical properties. There is an exceptional opportunity to observe, follow, and quantify changes in a soil microbial population that occur in response to elevated temperature. Typically, environments that are the focus of thermophile investigations are mature, established geothermal features (relative to the human experience and known records). This preemptive study will take advantage of naturally occurring temperature gradients that have recently surfaced across the landscape at one specific location in YNP. These recent changes provide a rare opportunity, whereby thermophiles and/or the development of thermophile communities can be studied in real time. As opposed to other neothermal environments such as deep sea vents which are logistically difficult to access, the research site is easily accessible and sampled. Using a combination of molecular and culturing techniques, the microbial community in this evolving thermal environment is being studied over time, with apparent alterations in community structure being correlated with changes in soil temperature and chemical properties.