The functional role of microbial diversity in terrestrial ecosystems

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Canadian forests and peatlands store large amounts of atmospheric carbon in soil organic matter, exchange greenhouse gasses with the atmosphere, contain vast biodiversity, and support forest products and other natural resource industries. Soil microbial communities play many vital roles in forest and peatland ecosystem and thus: The objectives of this research are to elucidate 1) poorly understood controls on microbial diversity and community structure and 2) linkages between microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles. The research will contribute to an important framework of determining in what contexts characterization of specific microbial communities can improve our ability to predict ecosystem dynamics. Projects will include 1) a temporally-intensive study of microbial community dynamics and related biogeochemical processes (nutrient and carbon cycling and greenhouse gas fluxes) in central Ontario forest and peatland sites; a set of soil core transplantation experiments to help determine the role of microbial communities versus environmental conditions driving important ecosystem processes; 2) characterization of fungi and bacteria responsible for the decomposition of coarse woody debris, a key ecological component of forests, but also a unique "natural laboratory" for studying the role of microbial diversity in ecosystem functioning; and 3) discovery of unknown microorganisms responsible for the anaerobic consumption of methane in peatlands- a process that has only just recently been shown to keep vast amounts of this greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere.The research will serve as an excellent means for training graduate and undergraduate student researchers to ask and answer important environmental science questions while providing unique interactions between students and Canadian government research partners directly involved in environmental management.