Response of Bacterial Diversity of Increased Productivity

许多生态学家认为，生产力(能量在生态系统中流动的速度)是对动植物多样性最普遍的影响之一。然而，人们对生产力和微生物多样性之间的关系知之甚少。最近对水生中附生生物的初步观察表明，细菌多样性对生产力的变化的反应可能与植物和动物的多样性非常不同。这项由博士后奖学金初学者格兰特主持的研究将证实这些初步观察，并测试观察到的模式是否1)样本大小或实验设计的人工制品，2)由于测量细菌多样性和动植物多样性的相对尺度不同，或3)由于细菌生产力和多样性之间的根本不同关系。这将通过以下方法实现：评估额外的中微体样本和生产力不同的池塘样本中的细菌多样性，并在较小规模和较大生产力水平范围内重复中微体实验。微生物代表了地球上大部分的生物多样性，并在几乎所有的环境过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。因此，了解自然界中微生物多样性是如何受到调节的是非常重要的。这项研究有可能产生关于地球上最多样化和最丰富的生物的基本新知识。

9907797BohannanMany ecologists believe that productivity (the rate at which energy flows in an ecological system) is one of the most pervasive influences on animal and plant diversity. However, very little is known about the relationship between productivity and microbial diversity. Recent preliminary observations in aquatic mesocosms suggest that bacterial diversity may respond to changes in productivity very differently from plant and animal diversity. The research conducted under this Postdoctoral Fellowship Starter Grant will confirm these preliminary observations and also test whether the pattern observed was 1) an artifact of sample size or experimental design, 2) due to the different relative scales at which bacterial diversity and plant and animal diversity were measured, or 3) due to a fundamentally different relationship between productivity and diversity for bacteria. This will be accomplished by estimating bacterial diversity in additional mesocosm samples and in samples from ponds that vary in productivity, and by repeating the mesocosm experiments on a smaller scale and with a broader range of productivity levels. Microorganisms represent most of the earth's biodiversity and play a crucial role in almost all environmental processes. Understanding how microbial diversity is regulated in nature is thus of great importance. This research has the potential to generate fundamental new knowledge about the most diverse and most abundant organisms on earth.