Microbial Biogeochemistry and Functional Diversity across the Forest-Tundra Ecotone in the Rocky Mountains

Drs。史蒂文·k·施密特和安德鲁·p·马丁获得了一笔赠款，用于建立一个微生物观测站，研究生活在高海拔苔原土壤和落基山脉森林中的微生物的分布和功能。他们将集中研究参与环境重要过程的微生物，如土壤氮转化和土壤与大气之间的甲烷（天然气）交换。这些过程很重要，因为它们会导致全球变暖和高山区下游的饮用水污染。重点将放在研究冬天在落基山脉地区的厚积雪下执行这些功能的微生物上。他们的初步工作表明，深雪下的土壤实际上具有很强的生物活性，氮和甲烷的重要环境转化发生在雪下。然而，对于在积雪下进行这些过程的适应寒冷的生物的身份，人们几乎一无所知。Drs。施密特和马丁将在夏季和冬季测量各种氮化合物和甲烷的生产和消耗。他们将同时使用DNA测序和探测方法来确定进行这些重要生物地球化学过程的优势微生物的身份。

Drs. Steven K. Schmidt and Andrew P. Martin have been awarded a grant to establish a microbial observatory to study the distribution and functioning of microorganisms that live in soils of high-elevation tundra and forests of the Rocky Mountains. They will concentrate on microorganisms that are involved in environmentally important processes such as soil nitrogen transformations and methane (natural gas) exchange between soil and the atmosphere. These processes are important because they can contribute to global warming and pollution of drinking water down stream from high mountain areas. Emphasis will be placed on studying the microbes that carry out these functions during the winter under deep snow packs of the Rocky Mountain region. Their preliminary work shows that soils under deep snow are actually very biologically active and that important environmental transformations of nitrogen and methane take place under the snow. Almost nothing is known, however, about the identity of the cold-adapted organisms that carry out these processes under the snow pack. Drs. Schmidt and Martin will measure the production and consumption of various nitrogen compounds and methane across the landscape during summer and winter. They will simultaneously use DNA sequencing and probing methods to determine the identity of the dominant microorganisms that carry out these important biogeochemical processes.