DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Microbial Responses to Elevation in a Tropical Montane Cloud Forest

论文研究：热带山地云林中微生物对海拔的反应

• 批准号: 1501438
• 负责人: Kathleen Treseder
• 金额: $ 2万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501438&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Microbial; Responses; Elevation

Tropical montane cloud forests are characterized by persistent low-level cloud cover. These clouds alter light, temperature, and precipitation. They also support a large community of plants living on the branches and trunks of trees. Over time, dead plant material collects and decomposes on these branches, forming ?canopy soil?. Few studies have investigated the microbial communities within canopy soils. Nevertheless, this is important because microbial communities decompose organic material from plants and release CO2 (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere. This process has primarily been measured in soils on the forest floor. Based on these forest floor measurements, we estimate that microbes in tropical ecosystems can contribute greatly to global production of CO2. However, these estimates do not account for canopy soil. Determining how canopy soils contribute to microbial diversity and carbon cycling will allow us to better determine the role of tropical ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. In turn, this knowledge will allow us to make more accurate predictions of how these ecosystems may respond to future changes in the environment. Moreover, international research and collaborations are important to promote environmental stewardship and create networks of researchers with common goals. The project involves a multidisciplinary collaboration with another researcher and will help build a stronger, international research network.This research will incorporate canopy soil into the investigation of microbial diversity in tropical montane cloud forests. To obtain a full assessment of the diversity within canopy soils and how they compare to terrestrial soils, the researchers will measure both fungal and bacterial diversity. Greater abiotic stress within tropical canopies should select for different microbial communities than are present in terrestrial soil. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that canopy and terrestrial soils will harbor distinct microbial communities. In addition, extracellular enzymatic activity of C-targeting enzymes will be higher in canopy soils due to increased organic matter. Canopy and terrestrial soils will be collected along two elevation transects each on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the Cordillera de Tilarán within the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Collections will occur during the dry (January to April) and wet (May to November) seasons to explore differences in seasonality within this ecosystem. Fungal and bacterial diversity and extracellular enzymatic activity will be measured.

热带山地云森林的特征是持续的低级云层覆盖物。这些云改变了光，温度和降水。他们还支持居住在树枝和树干上的大量植物社区。随着时间的流逝，死亡的植物材料会在这些分支上收集并分解，形成冠层土壤？很少有研究研究了树冠土壤中的微生物群落。然而，这很重要，因为微生物群落将植物中的有机物质分解为大气中的有机材料，并将二氧化碳（温室气）释放到大气中。该过程主要是在森林地面的土壤中测量的。基于这些森林地面测量值，我们估计热带生态系统中的微生物可以为全球二氧化碳的产生做出很大贡献。但是，这些估计不考虑冠层土壤。确定冠层土壤如何促进微生物多样性和碳循环，这将使我们能够更好地确定热带生态系统在全球碳循环中的作用。反过来，这些知识将使我们能够对这些生态系统如何应对环境中的未来变化做出更准确的预测。此外，国际研究和合作对于促进环境管理和建立具有共同目标的研究人员网络至关重要。该项目涉及与另一位研究人员进行的多学科合作，并将有助于建立一个更强大的国际研究网络。这项研究将将冠层土壤融合到热带蒙塔尼云森林中微生物多样性的投资中。为了完整评估树冠土壤中的多样性以及它们与陆地土壤的比较，研究人员将测量真菌和细菌的多样性。热带檐篷内的非生物应激应为不同的微生物群落选择，而不是陆地土壤中的情况。因此，研究人员假设树冠和陆地土壤将具有不同的微生物群落。此外，由于有机物的增加，在冠层土壤中，C靶向酶的细胞外酶活性将更高。树冠和地面土壤将沿着山地云森林储备中的Cordillera deTilarán的大西洋和太平洋槽的两个高程横除分别收集。收集将在干燥（1月至4月）和湿（5月至11月）的季节中发生，以探索本生态系统中季节性的差异。将测量真菌和细菌多样的细菌和细胞外酶活性。