Spatial Scaling of Bacterial Biodiversity

细菌生物多样性的空间尺度

• 批准号: 0542545
• 负责人: Jessica Green
• 金额: $ 48万
• 依托单位: University of California - Merced
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-15 至 2007-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0542545&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Spatial; Scaling; Bacterial; Biodiversity

Microorganisms comprise much of Earth's biodiversity and play critical roles in biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their spatial distribution. It has historically been assumed that due to their unique biology, free-living microorganisms are globally ubiquitous and cosmopolitan, and thus have fundamentally different biodiversity scaling relationships relative to those observed for other forms of life. Although these differences have been assumed to be universally characteristic of microorganisms, the empirical evidence for this is scant, and recent observations are revealing microbial biodiversity scaling relationships that are qualitatively similar to those of plants and animals. This research builds on these recent studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial scaling of microbial biodiversity. This project will use beta-diversity analyses as a theoretical tool to answer questions about the relative importance of dispersal history and environmental heterogeneity in controlling the spatial scaling of microbial diversity. Analyses will be based on a spatially-explicit set of microbial diversity data, generated by a sampling scheme that is of global scale, and focused on soils in the Mediterranean-climate regions of California, Chile, South Africa, and Australia. Microbial diversity will be assayed using molecular methods focused on methane oxidizing bacteria. Statistical analyses will determine the relative importance of the processes generating and maintaining microbial beta diversity, and how these processes vary with region, spatial scale and taxonomic resolution. This work will contribute broadly to a general understanding of global biodiversity patterns. An outreach component of this project will engage students in the local Merced school district in a program that promotes the application of math to the environmental science.

微生物构成了地球生物多样性的大部分，在地球化学循环和生态系统功能中发挥着关键作用，但对其空间分布知之甚少。 历史上一直认为，由于其独特的生物学，自由生活的微生物是全球普遍存在和世界性的，因此相对于其他形式的生命观察到的生物多样性缩放关系有根本不同。 虽然这些差异被认为是微生物的普遍特征，但经验证据很少，最近的观察揭示了微生物生物多样性的比例关系，在质量上与植物和动物相似。 这项研究以这些最近的研究为基础，旨在更全面地了解微生物生物多样性的空间尺度。 该项目将使用β-多样性分析作为理论工具，以回答有关扩散历史和环境异质性在控制微生物多样性空间尺度方面的相对重要性的问题。 分析将基于一组明确的空间微生物多样性数据，通过全球范围的采样方案产生，并侧重于加州，智利，南非和澳大利亚的地中海气候地区的土壤。 微生物多样性将使用分子方法进行分析，重点是甲烷氧化细菌。 统计分析将确定产生和维持微生物β多样性的过程的相对重要性，以及这些过程如何随区域、空间尺度和分类分辨率而变化。 这项工作将广泛地促进对全球生物多样性模式的普遍了解。 该项目的一个推广部分将使当地默塞德学区的学生参与一个促进数学在环境科学中应用的项目。