碳酸盐型盐湖碳硫元素循环的微生物驱动机制及适应机制

碳酸盐型盐湖含有高浓度碳酸钠和其它一些可溶性盐类（如硫酸钠等），在全球干旱和半旱地区（如我国内蒙古高原）广泛分布。该类高盐高pH盐湖尽管环境苛刻，却孕育了丰富的微生物类群，其初级生产力效率甚至可达全球湖泊和流域平均水平的十多倍，在含盐含碱水生生境元素循环中发挥了独特的作用。本项目将基于申请人在嗜盐微生物代谢领域的长期积累，进一步聚焦于碳酸盐型盐湖及其功能微生物组，重点开展该特殊水生生境中碳硫元素循环的微生物驱动机制及其适应机制的研究。拟通过创新性培养技术和非培养策略，结合现代分子生物学方法，从微生物群落，关键功能菌株，特殊代谢途径，互作网络到适应机制等多个层次，系统揭示该类盐湖微生物参与碳硫元素循环的生理代谢机制及其分子基础，探讨碳硫元素循环策略对盐湖微生物特殊群落结构形成的贡献和对盐湖演化的可能影响，并为国家生态健康与环境安全（如含盐碱废水/含硫废气治理等）提供新的微生物资源与技术策略。

The soda lakes are characterized by high concentrations of sodium carbonate and other dissolved salts，such as sodium chloride and sodium sulfate, and are widespread in arid and semi-arid areas of the earth (e.g. the Inner Mongolia plateau). Despite the harsh haloalkaline conditions, these lakes are usually inhabited by abundant microbial communities and are often highly productive, with gross primary production rates much higher than the global average for lakes and streams, thus the microbiota in the soda lakes would have played an important role in biogeochemical cycling of elements in such extreme aquatic environments. This project will focus on the carbonate-sulfate containing soda lakes, and concentrate on the microbe-driven carbon and sulfur cycling, as well as their environmental adaptation mechanisms in this unique saline system. By means of innovative culture methods, high-throughput culture-independent approaches and molecular biology techniques, we will reveal the mechanisms of the microbe-driven element cycling at levels of microbial community, functional strains, interaction networks, specific metabolic pathways and the related adaptation mechanisms. This project will systematically answer the scientific questions on microbial ecophysiological metabolism related to carbon and sulfur cycling, and provide novel insights into the microbial diversity in the soda lakes and its role in biogeochemistry and biomineralization. The achievements from this project will not only help to understand the microbial geochemical cycling of carbon and sulfur, but may also provide microbial resources and biotechnological potentials for supporting the national ecological health and environmental safety.