Dynamics of 'Glacier Blood' microbial ecosystems in the European Alps

欧洲阿尔卑斯山“冰川血”微生物生态系统的动态

• 批准号: 2748269
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2748269
• 关键词: Dynamics; Glacier; Blood; microbial; ecosystems

Mountain environments are home to extremophilicterrestrial microalgae that become loaded with pigments toprotect them from strong light conditions. The red stainingof snow and ice surfaces characteristic of such microbialactivity (known as 'glacier blood') is now noticeably morefrequent and widespread at high altitudes globally and isevidence that warming is impacting mountain ecology atthe most fundamental of levels. Although algae residingwithin the surface of high-latitude ice masses are now well-known to play globally significant roles in biogeochemicalcycling and ice-albedo feedbacks, the distribution, diversity,and function of algal communities specific to alpine regionshas been poorly studied, meaning little is understoodregarding their origin and dynamics, means of production,and impact on carbon cycling and glacier melt.Objectives1. Apply Earth Observation tools to quantify algal spatialand temporal dynamics on snow and ice surfaces2. Undertake field sampling of snow and ice surfaces andmelt products3. Apply metagenomic and metaproteomic analyses tosamples to elucidate ecosystem composition and function4. Quantify the sources and fluxes of carbon at thecatchment scale and the contribution from snow- and ice-surface ecosystemsNovelty & timelinessAlgae affect and are affected by environmental warmingand expansion of algal communities at high elevation haspotentially destablising consequences for mountainecosystems and ice bodies. This project will couple EarthObservation approaches that will quantify algal communityexpansion at the Alpine scale with plot- and catchment-level sampling to enable: (a) metagenomic andmetaproteomic analyses that will establish microbialcommunity composition, processes and metabolicpathways; and (b) carbon quality and carbon isotopeanalysis that will quantify carbon fluxes from biological andgeological sources. This novel suite of methods aims toprovide unique insight into algal community functioning anddynamics and their role in biogeochemical processes thatsequester atmospheric CO2.

山地环境是极端微生物陆地微藻的家园，这些微藻富含色素，以保护它们免受强光条件的伤害。这种微生物活动（被称为“冰川血”）的冰雪表面的红色染色现在在全球高海拔地区明显更加频繁和广泛，并证明气候变暖正在最根本的层面上影响山区生态。尽管高纬度冰体表面的藻类在地球化学循环和冰-水反馈中发挥着全球性的重要作用，但对高山地区特有的藻类群落的分布、多样性和功能的研究却很少，这意味着对它们的起源和动态、生产方式以及对碳循环和冰川融化的影响了解甚少。应用地球观测工具量化冰雪表面的藻类时空动态2。对冰雪表面和融化的产品进行实地取样3.应用宏基因组学和元蛋白质组学分析来阐明生态系统的组成和功能4.量化流域尺度的碳源和碳通量以及雪和冰表面生态系统的贡献新颖性和时效性藻类影响环境变暖并受其影响，高海拔藻类群落的扩张对山区生态系统和冰体具有潜在的破坏性后果。该项目将把地球观测方法与地块和集水区取样相结合，这些方法将量化阿尔卑斯山尺度的藻类群落扩展，以便：（a）进行宏基因组和元蛋白组分析，确定微生物群落的组成、过程和代谢途径;（B）进行碳质量和碳同位素分析，量化生物和地质来源的碳通量。这套新的方法旨在提供独特的洞察藻类群落功能和动态及其在地球化学过程中的作用，封存大气中的二氧化碳。