Collaborative Research: Microbial Observatory in the Cariaco Basin - Dynamics of Protistan Diversity across Time, Space, and Chemical Gradients

该项目的长期目标是在时间和空间上建立生物圈范围内的原生生物记录，并阐明它们在全球生态和生物地球化学中的作用。该项目正在获得最大的海洋缺氧系统卡里亚科盆地中原生生物多样性及其动态的详尽记录。项目内容为：对Cariaco盆地缺氧和缺氧生境中原生生物18S rDNA多样性进行全面调查(1)，对水柱和沉积物中的多个生态群落进行取样，系统恢复原生生物18S rDNA序列，广泛覆盖克隆文库，分析检测到的原生生物的系统发育位置；2)利用FISH、light和SEM超微结构表征等新方法，恢复具有数值意义和系统发育意义的物种进行直接扫描电镜检查和表征；努力丰富和培育用于生理、生化和形态研究的独特物种；3)通过对代表性环境样本集进行FISH分析，评估恢复原生生物物种的生态重要性，定量描述物种随时间、空间和环境梯度的动态变化；4)将传统分类学与分子数据相结合，通过原生生物多样性知识中心（Knowledge Center of protistan Diversity）传播项目成果，编制物种鉴定信息；发生和分布。这个以互联网为基础的知识中心正在与其他数据集协同工作，主要是由其中一个合作伙伴创建的微观数据集（http://www.mbl.edu/microscope）。该项目的更广泛影响包括将数据整合到现代知识网络技术中，并培训大量研究生和本科生，包括委内瑞拉合作者的学生。该项目与卡里亚科盆地的christoserdov项目密切合作，后者的重点是调查盆地氧化还原带的原核生物多样性。

The long term goal of this project is to build a biosphere-wide record of protistan life in time and space and elucidate their roles in global ecology and biogeochemistry. The project is obtaining an exhaustive record of protistan diversity and its dynamics in the largest marine anoxic system, the Cariaco Basin. The project is: conducting a comprehensive survey of protistan 18S rDNA diversity in suboxic and anoxic habitats in the Cariaco Basin 1) by sampling several ecological guilds in the water column and sediments, by systematic recovery of the protistan 18S rDNA sequences, by extensive coverage of the clone libraries and by analysis of the phylogenetic positions of the detected protists; 2) by recovering numerically and phylogenetically significant species for direct SEM examination and characterization of their properties by using new methodology including FISH and light and SEM ultrastructural characterization; efforts are being made to enrich for and cultivate unique species for physiological, biochemical and morphological investigations; 3) by assessing the ecological importance of recovered protistan species by using FISH on representative sets of environmental samples and quantitatively describing the species dynamics over time and space and across environmental gradients and 4) by disseminating information resulting from the project via a Knowledge Center of Protistan Diversity by integrating the traditional taxonomy with the molecular data and compiling the information on species identification, occurrence and distribution. The internet-based Knowledge Center is working in concert with other data sets, principally micro*scope (http://www.mbl.edu/microscope), created by one of the co-PIs. Broader impacts of the project include the integration of data into modern knowledge network technologies and training a large number of graduate students and undergraduates, including students of Venezuelan collaborators. This project is working closely with the Chistoserdov project in the Cariaco Basin, where the focus is on the investigation of prokaryotic diversity in the redox zone of the basin.