Collaborative Research: Controls over the Spatial Distribution and Activity of Microbial Communities in Southern Victoria Land

分子技术的进步扩大了我们对土壤微生物群落的了解，并提出了关于微生物多样性的区域和全球格局的重要问题。拟议的研究将调查横贯北极山脉的一系列地球化学和水文土壤条件以及地方到区域尺度上的微生物群落的组成和活动，以评估对微生物生物地理的控制。这项研究的目标是横跨北极山脉的两个地区，麦克默多干河谷和更南边的比尔德莫尔冰川地区，后者代表着一个未被开发的土壤环境，而且无疑是更极端的土壤环境。该研究项目将采用一种综合方法，利用分子技术并在定量生物地理框架内对生物活动进行现场评估，目的是区分对微生物群落结构的精细控制和广泛控制。这项研究对于确定极端微生物食物网的基本营养状态以及它们对气候变化的敏感性至关重要。调查人员将通过第一人称外展以及基于网络的交流和练习来吸引中学和中学后的教育工作者。两名博士后科学家将在跨学科和国际环境中接受培训。

Advances in molecular techniques have expanded our understanding of soil microbial communities, and raised important questions about regional and global patterns in microbial diversity. The proposed research will investigate the composition and activity of microbial communities across a range of geochemical and hydrologic soil conditions, and over local to regional scales in the Transantarctic Mountains, in order to assess controls over microbial biogeography. The research targets two areas in the Transantarctic mountains, the McMurdo Dry Valleys, and the Beardmore Glacier region further south, the latter representing an underexplored and inarguably more extreme soil environment. The research project will adopt an integrated approach, using molecular techniques and in situ assessment of biological activity in a quantitative biogeographical framework, with the goal of distinguishing fine versus broad scale controls over microbial community structure. The research is essential to determining the basic trophic status of extreme microbial food webs, and their sensitivity to climate change. The investigators will engage secondary and post-secondary educators through first person outreach as well as web-based communications and exercises. Two postdoctoral scientists will be trained in an interdisciplinary and international setting.