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

Steven K.博士施密特和安德鲁·P·马丁获得了一笔赠款，用于建立一个微生物观测站，研究生活在落基山脉高海拔苔原和森林土壤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，因为它们可能导致全球变暖和高山地区下游饮用水的污染。 重点将放在研究微生物进行这些功能在冬季下深积雪的落基山脉地区。 他们的初步工作表明，深雪下的土壤实际上非常具有生物活性，氮和甲烷的重要环境转化发生在雪下。 然而，几乎没有人知道在积雪下进行这些过程的冷适应生物的身份。 施密特和马丁博士将测量夏季和冬季各种氮化合物和甲烷的产生和消耗。 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.