Monitoring Underground Disturbances (MUD): Creating a Microbial BioBank for Long-Term Monitoring of Extreme Weather Impacts on Forests

监测地下扰动（MUD）：创建微生物生物库以长期监测极端天气对森林的影响

• 批准号: NE/X003426/1
• 负责人: Bonnie Waring
• 金额: $ 5.57万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX003426%2F1
• 关键词: Monitoring; Underground; Disturbances; MUD; Creating

In February 2022, the UK experienced back-to-back windstorms Eunice and Franklin, which killed and uprooted trees in forests across the UK. Although these aboveground impacts of extreme weather are visually obvious and relatively easy to quantify, we know much less about how soil microbes belowground respond to the same disturbances. Yet these microbes may hold the key to forest recovery, as changes in the abundance of plant pathogens or beneficial mutualists (mycorrhizae) will influence which trees re-establish, and how quickly. We hypothesize that forest microbes are indirectly affected by storms due to physical disturbance of the soil when trees uproot, and changes in the forest microclimate under tree canopy gaps. To test this prediction, we will conduct large-scale surveys of forest condition in stands of pine, spruce, oak, and beech that were impacted by Eunice and Franklin, pairing measurements of tree falls and canopy gaps with soil sampling. Soil samples will be archived in a long-term 'BioBank' at Imperial College London, and can be analysed with DNA sequence technology to identify which species of microbes are present in each sample. The BioBank will grow over time as researchers return to the same forest sites again and again to monitor shifts in microbial communities as the forest regenerates. This will allow us to determine which types of microbes might facilitate forest recovery, and better understand which kinds of forest disturbance have the biggest belowground impacts. We will also conduct a preliminary characterization of the thousands of soil fungal species that occur across a subset of our sites, providing an immediate insight into the hidden ecosystem effects of extreme weather.

于二零二二年二月，英国接连遭遇尤尼斯及富兰克林风暴，令英国各地森林树木死亡及被连根拔起。尽管极端天气对地面的影响在视觉上是显而易见的，而且相对容易量化，但我们对地下土壤微生物如何应对同样的干扰知之甚少。然而，这些微生物可能掌握着森林恢复的关键，因为植物病原体或有益互利菌（真菌）丰度的变化将影响哪些树木重建，以及重建的速度。我们假设，森林微生物间接受到风暴的影响，由于物理干扰的土壤时，树木连根拔起，并在树冠间隙下的森林小气候的变化。为了检验这一预测，我们将进行大规模的调查，在松树，云杉，橡树，山毛榉林，尤尼斯和富兰克林的影响，配对测量树木福尔斯和树冠间隙与土壤采样的立场。土壤样本将被长期保存在伦敦帝国理工学院的“生物库”中，并可以通过DNA测序技术进行分析，以确定每个样本中存在哪些微生物。随着研究人员一次又一次地回到同一个森林地点，监测森林再生过程中微生物群落的变化，生物库将随着时间的推移而不断扩大。这将使我们能够确定哪些类型的微生物可能有助于森林恢复，并更好地了解哪些类型的森林干扰对地下影响最大。我们还将对发生在我们的站点子集上的数千种土壤真菌物种进行初步表征，以便立即了解极端天气对隐藏的生态系统的影响。