RUI: Nonequilibrium Determinants of Microbial Community Structure in Intertidal Sediments: Role of Deposit Feeding

DEB-0108615植物细菌在沉积系统中扮演双重角色：作为有机碎屑的分解者和作为高等生物的食物。 关键的生态参数，如丰富，生产和社区组成，每个有助于这些角色的性格。 这里提出的研究的主要目标是确定的机制，通过该机制，细菌组合恢复摄食沉积物的无脊椎动物（存款馈线），并评估这种生物干扰的沉积细菌群落结构的重要性。 我们将确定在创造时空异质性和保持微生物群落的多样性，特别是暴露于存款喂养和一般干扰的非平衡因素的意义。 我们希望揭示这些重要的变量所需的构建和测试补丁动力学模型，从而提供了一个基础的预测土著和引进的细菌在沉积物中的群落结构和代谢活动。

DEB-0108615PlanteBacteria serve dual roles in sedimentary systems: as decomposers of organic detritus and as food for higher organisms. Key ecological parameters such as abundance, production, and community composition each contribute to the character of these roles. The primary objectives of the research proposed here are to determine the mechanisms by which bacterial assemblages recover from ingestion by sediment-feeding invertebrates (deposit feeders), and to assess the importance of this biological disturbance to the structure of sedimentary bacterial communities. We will determine the significance of nonequilibrium factors in creating spatio-temporal heterogeneity and maintaining diversity in microbial communities exposed to deposit feeding in particular, and disturbances in general. We hope to reveal those important variables required to construct and test patch dynamics models, thereby providing a basis for predictions regarding the community structure and metabolic activities of indigenous and introduced bacteria in sediments.