Algivorous Cercozoa shape the community composition of cryptogamic covers, the dominant vegetation in Polar Regions.

食藻尾兽塑造了隐花植物的群落组成，隐花植物是极地地区的主要植被。

• 批准号: 443133824
• 负责人: Dr. Kenneth Dumack
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Biowissenschaften (IfBi)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/443133824?language=en
• 关键词: Algivorous; Cercozoa; shape; community; composition

Predator-prey dynamics of prokaryotes and their eukaryotic consumers have long been in focus of microbial ecology, but microbial eukaryote-eukaryote interactions were less investigated. Microalgae play the key role as primary producers in marine and freshwater ecosystems of Antarctica and almost all energy and nutrients are channelled here via algae to higher trophic levels. In contrast and in this context, terrestrial ecosystems of Antarctica are unstudied. Terrestrial vegetation is usually dominated by vascular plants as primary producers, but the terrestrial vegetation of Antarctica is dominated by cryptogamic covers (like biocrusts), and the abundant terrestrial algae within. Up to 55% of the vegetated land surface on the Antarctic Peninsula and 70% of the vegetated land surface on Arctic Svalbard is covered by biological soil crusts (biocrusts); these numbers can be expected to increase considering a predicted warming of the Polar Regions (e.g. “Arctic Greening”) due to climate change. A significant proportion of polar primary production can thus be expected to be conducted by biocrust algae at high latitudes. Nevertheless, it is unexplored how this energy is channelled to higher trophic levels, especially when considering the scarcity of algivorous metazoans in Antarctica. Cercozoa are one of the most abundant unicellular eukaryotes (protists) in terrestrial habitats, and as preliminary results show: Algivorous Cercozoa dominate biocrusts in Polar Regions. We will illuminate for the first time predator-prey relationships in biocrusts between algae as main primary producers and the most important algivores to complement the soil microbial food web in both Polar Regions. For this we will combine barcoded-primer based high through-put Illumina surveys coupled with trait-based data analyses and complemented with traditional culture-based experiments to obtain a comprehensive picture based on predator-prey relations of microalgae and Cercozoa, thereby addressing for the first time their structure and function in terrestrial ecosystems of Antarctica and the Arctic. Such data will contribute to the questions how relevant the soil microbial food-web is in the Polar Regions and whether global warming has the potential to change these interactions?

原核生物及其真核消费者的捕食-猎物动态长期以来一直是微生物生态学的焦点，但微生物真核生物与真核生物相互作用的研究较少。微藻作为南极洲海洋和淡水生态系统的初级生产者发挥着关键作用，几乎所有能量和营养物质都通过藻类输送到更高的营养级。相比之下，在这种背景下，南极洲的陆地生态系统尚未被研究。陆地植被通常以维管植物为主要生产者，但南极洲的陆地植被以隐花植物（如生物结皮）和内部丰富的陆生藻类为主。南极半岛高达 55% 的植被地表和北极斯瓦尔巴特群岛 70% 的植被地表被生物土壤结皮（生物结皮）覆盖；考虑到气候变化导致极地地区变暖（例如“北极绿化”），预计这些数字还会增加。因此，预计极地初级生产的很大一部分将由高纬度地区的生物结壳藻类进行。然而，尚未探索这种能量如何被引导到更高的营养级，特别是考虑到南极洲食藻后生动物的稀缺。尾虫是陆地生境中最丰富的单细胞真核生物（原生生物）之一，初步结果表明：食藻尾虫在极地的生物结皮中占主导地位。我们将首次阐明作为主要初级生产者的藻类与补充两极地区土壤微生物食物网的最重要的食藻动物之间的生物结皮中的捕食者-被捕食者关系。为此，我们将把基于条形码引物的高通量Illumina调查与基于性状的数据分析相结合，并辅以传统的基于培养的实验，以获得基于微藻和尾虫捕食者-猎物关系的全面图片，从而首次解决它们在南极洲和北极陆地生态系统中的结构和功能。这些数据将有助于回答以下问题：极地地区土壤微生物食物网的相关性如何，以及全球变暖是否有可能改变这些相互作用？