OPUS: Synthesis of long-term research on hot spring microbial mats into a monograph on principles of microbial community ecology

受过植物和动物物种识别训练的生物学家可以了解群落的组成和结构，并深入了解其功能。对于理解由微生物构成的群落来说，情况就不一样了，因为微生物学家一直被传统方法的局限性“蒙住了眼睛”。显微镜不能用于鉴定微生物，因为微生物很小，难以描述，实验室培养也不能用于描述微生物群落，因为它选择的微生物物种比自然环境更适合实验室环境。近年来发展的遗传方法已经绕过了这些限制，但也给微生物学家留下了理解遗传差异如何等同于微生物物种差异的挑战。美国国家科学基金会资助了对栖息在温泉中的微生物垫群落的长期研究，认为对相对简单、稳定和完全微生物群落的深入研究将有助于深入了解单个微生物如何组织自身以协调群落功能的基本原理。该奖项赞助了一本书的开发，该书将详细研究从传统到现代遗传方法过渡的30年期间的温泉微生物垫群落。重要的是，它将描述一种自然方式的成熟，以物种及其对群落结构和功能的独特生态贡献来解释遗传多样性。这本书将整合通过研究植物和动物学到的群落生态学原理，试图为所有生态学家提供一个更有原则的微生物群落观点。这本书更广泛的影响是，它将帮助科学家更好地理解(1)如何预测微生物对不断变化的环境条件的反应，鉴于即将到来的全球气候变化和微生物在维持地球所有生命形式的可居住性方面发挥的核心作用，这一点非常重要；(2)如何控制微生物以促进对人类有用的过程。

Biologists trained to recognize plant and animal species can understand the composition and structure of a community and obtain insight into its functioning. The same cannot be said for understanding communities constructed by microscopic organisms, as microbiologists have been "blindfolded" by limitations of traditional methods. Microscopy cannot be used to identify microorganisms, which are small and nondescript, and laboratory cultivation cannot be used to describe microbial communities because it selects for microbial species that are more fit in laboratory environments than nature. Genetic approaches developed in recent years have circumvented these limitations, but have left microbiologists with the challenge of understanding how genetic differences equate to differences among microbial species. NSF has funded long-term research on microbial mat communities inhabiting hot springs, rationalizing that intensive study of relatively simple, stable and totally microbial communities would yield insight into fundamental principles governing how individual microorganisms organize themselves to coordinate the function of a community. This award sponsors the development of a book that will detail studies of hot spring microbial mat communities over a 30 year period of transition from traditional to contemporary genetic approaches. Importantly, it will describe the maturation of a natural way to interpret genetic diversity in terms of species and their unique ecological contributions to community structure and function. The book will integrate principles of community ecology learned by studying plants and animals, in an attempt to provide all ecologists with a more principled view of microbial communities. The book's broader impact is that it will help scientists better understand (i) how to predict the response of microorganisms to changing environmental conditions, extremely important given impending global climate change and the central role microorganisms play in maintaining Earth's habitability for all life forms, and (ii) how to control microorganisms in order to facilitate processes useful to mankind.