Microbial Consortia and Disturbance in Sediment Habitats

微生物群落和沉积物栖息地的干扰

• 批准号: 0108412
• 负责人: Charles Lovell
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0108412&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Microbial; Consortia; Disturbance; Sediment; Habitats

DEB-0108412 - LovellEnvironmental disturbance by such factors as storms, fires and predators, is a pervasive force impacting the diversity and organization of organism communities. Because of competitive interactions, higher organism typically have their peak species diversity at intermediate disturbance levels. Microbial communities are much more dependent upon positive interactions than on competition, and are organized in mutualistic consortia. The interactions among species in these consortia facilitate vital ecological functions, such as organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, and are highly dependent on the physical structure of undisturbed sediments and on modifications of this structure by the organisms. Among the most dramatic modifications by the resident microbiota is biofilm formation. The biofilms stabilize consortia and provide homeostasis for the microorganisms within them. We predict that unlike higher organisms, the mutualistic nature of sediment microbial assemblages will be seriously disrupted by disturbance and will take several experimental approaches to test this theory. We seek to integrate the impacts of disturbance on sediment microbiota into the theoretical and empirical framework of disturbance effects on higher organism communities. This would serve both fields by providing much needed theoretical underpinnings to an important aspect of microbial ecology.

DEB-0108412 - Lovell 风暴、火灾和掠食者等因素造成的环境干扰是影响生物群落多样性和组织的普遍力量。 由于竞争性相互作用，高等生物通常在中等干扰水平下达到其峰值物种多样性。 微生物群落更多地依赖于积极的相互作用而不是竞争，并且以互惠联盟的形式组织起来。 这些群落中物种之间的相互作用促进了重要的生态功能，例如有机物分解和养分循环，并且高度依赖于未受干扰的沉积物的物理结构以及生物体对此结构的修改。 常驻微生物群最显着的改变是生物膜的形成。 生物膜稳定菌群并为其中的微生物提供稳态。 我们预测，与高等生物不同，沉积物微生物组合的共生性质将受到干扰的严重破坏，并将采取多种实验方法来检验这一理论。 我们试图将干扰对沉积物微生物群的影响纳入干扰对高等生物群落影响的理论和经验框架中。 这将为微生物生态学的一个重要方面提供急需的理论基础，从而服务于这两个领域。