Collaborative Research: Microbial Observatory in the Cariaco Basin - Dynamics of Protistan Diversity across Time, Space, and Chemical Gradients

该项目的长期目标是建立一个生物圈范围内的原生生物生命的时间和空间记录，并阐明它们在全球生态学和地球化学中的作用。 该项目正在获得最大的海洋缺氧系统-卡里亚科盆地-原生生物多样性及其动态的详尽记录。 该项目是：对Cariaco盆地亚氧和缺氧生境中的原生生物18 S rDNA多样性进行全面调查：1）对水柱和沉积物中的几个生态集团进行取样，系统地恢复原生生物18 S rDNA序列，广泛覆盖克隆文库，并分析检测到的原生生物的系统发育位置; 2）通过使用包括FISH和光以及SEM超微结构表征在内的新方法，回收在数量上和遗传学上具有重要意义的物种，用于直接SEM检查和表征其性质;正在努力丰富和培育用于生理、生化和形态学研究的独特物种;第三章通过对有代表性的环境样品进行FISH，并定量评估恢复的原生生物物种的生态重要性，描述物种在时间和空间上以及在环境梯度上的动态; 4）通过原生生物多样性知识中心传播项目产生的信息，将传统分类学与分子数据相结合，汇编物种鉴定、发生和分布的信息。 基于互联网的知识中心正在与其他数据集协同工作，主要是由一个共同PI创建的显微镜（http：//www.mbl.edu/microscope）。该项目的更广泛影响包括将数据纳入现代知识网络技术，培训大量研究生和本科生，包括委内瑞拉合作者的学生。 该项目与Cariaco盆地的Chistoserdov项目密切合作，重点是调查该盆地氧化还原带的原核生物多样性。

The long term goal of this project is to build a biosphere-wide record of protistan life in time and space and elucidate their roles in global ecology and biogeochemistry. The project is obtaining an exhaustive record of protistan diversity and its dynamics in the largest marine anoxic system, the Cariaco Basin. The project is: conducting a comprehensive survey of protistan 18S rDNA diversity in suboxic and anoxic habitats in the Cariaco Basin 1) by sampling several ecological guilds in the water column and sediments, by systematic recovery of the protistan 18S rDNA sequences, by extensive coverage of the clone libraries and by analysis of the phylogenetic positions of the detected protists; 2) by recovering numerically and phylogenetically significant species for direct SEM examination and characterization of their properties by using new methodology including FISH and light and SEM ultrastructural characterization; efforts are being made to enrich for and cultivate unique species for physiological, biochemical and morphological investigations; 3) by assessing the ecological importance of recovered protistan species by using FISH on representative sets of environmental samples and quantitatively describing the species dynamics over time and space and across environmental gradients and 4) by disseminating information resulting from the project via a Knowledge Center of Protistan Diversity by integrating the traditional taxonomy with the molecular data and compiling the information on species identification, occurrence and distribution. The internet-based Knowledge Center is working in concert with other data sets, principally micro*scope (http://www.mbl.edu/microscope), created by one of the co-PIs. Broader impacts of the project include the integration of data into modern knowledge network technologies and training a large number of graduate students and undergraduates, including students of Venezuelan collaborators. This project is working closely with the Chistoserdov project in the Cariaco Basin, where the focus is on the investigation of prokaryotic diversity in the redox zone of the basin.