Resilience of soil microbial communities to extreme weather

项目亮点：- 土壤表面的生物土壤群落发挥着重要的生态系统功能，包括固碳和固氮以及保护土壤表面免受侵蚀。- 您将量化BSC在温带土壤中的生态系统功能，并研究它们将受到气候变化（包括极端天气事件）影响的方式-您将使用各种尖端的微生物，分子生物学和气体分析技术，包括新型气体传感器技术，用于连续报告土壤和其他土壤代谢活动的温室气体排放。概述：土壤表面有一个复杂的生物层，由蓝藻、细菌、藻类和硅藻组成。这些在沙漠中得到了很好的研究，它们具有相当大的环境重要性，因为它们在氮和碳固定、决定水的渗透和蒸发以及保护土壤免受侵蚀方面发挥着作用。我们已经表明，这种生物土壤结皮（BSC）也可以在温带土壤中形成，并具有类似的生物组成，在沙漠土壤中，这表明他们可能会执行类似的，重要的，生态系统的作用。气候变化正在影响天气模式，增加高温、干旱、洪水和极端降雨等极端天气事件的频率、规模和持续时间。由于BSC栖息在大气和土壤之间的界面，BSC对天气模式变化的适应能力可能在确定极端天气事件如何影响土壤可持续性及其生态系统功能的恢复力方面发挥关键作用。在这个项目中，您将研究BSC在温带土壤中的功能，以及这些功能将受到气候变化（包括极端天气事件）影响的方式。

Project Highlights: - Biological soil communities (BSC) at the soil surface perform vital ecosystem functions, including C and N fixation, and protection of the soil surface from erosion. - You will quantify the ecosystem functions of BSC in temperate soils and investigate the way in which they will be affected by climate change, including extreme weather events- You will use a wide variety of cutting edge microbiological, molecular biology and gas analysis techniques, including novel gas sensor technologies for continuous reporting of both greenhouse gas emissions from soil and other soil metabolic activity. Overview:Soil possesses a complex biological layer at the surface, comprised of cyanobacteria, bacteria, algae and bryophytes. These have been well studied in deserts, where they have considerable environmental importance because of their role in nitrogen and carbon fixation, determining water infiltration and evaporation and protecting the soil against erosion. We have shown that such biological soil crusts (BSC) can also form in temperate soils, and have similar biological compositions to those in desert soils, suggesting that they may perform similar, vital, ecosystem roles. Climate change is affecting weather patterns, increasing the frequency, magnitude and duration of extreme weather events such as high temperature, drought, flooding and extreme rainfall. Since BSC inhabit the interface between the atmosphere and the soil, the resilience of BSC to changes in weather patterns is likely to play a key role in determining how extreme weather events impact soil sustainability and resilience of its ecosystem functions. In this project you will investigate the functions of BSC in temperate soil, and the way in which these will be impacted by climate change, including extreme weather events.