Biologische Bodenkrustenalgen in den Polarregionen - Biodiversität, genetische Diversität und Ökosystem-Elastizität unter Global Change Szenarien

陆生绿藻和蓝藻是极地生物土壤结皮的典型和丰富成分。这些群落形成水稳定的团聚体，在初级生产、固氮、养分循环、保水和土壤稳定方面具有重要的生态作用。虽然关于北极洲和南极洲的绿藻和蓝藻的现有数据通常非常有限，但作为营养不良环境中的生态系统开发者，它们的功能重要性被认为很高。因此，该跨学科项目的主要目标是首次对其1进行准确评估。)生物多样性以及2。)亚种下遗传多样性，3)生理生态表现和4)分离自南极半岛和北极斯瓦尔巴群岛的生物土壤结壳中最丰富的类群的转录组学。生物多样性将使用经典的培养方法结合分子分类学方法以及元基因组学进行研究。将使用指纹技术研究最丰富的绿藻和蓝藻的亚特异种遗传多样性，并选择一系列与其生理可塑性有关的种群。温度和水的可用性是陆地生物的两个关键环境因素，目前由于全球变暖，它们在极地地区正在发生变化，因此它们对生长和光合作用响应模式的影响将被比较研究。这些数据将表明全球变化是否以及如何影响极地土壤结皮中关键生物的种群结构和生态表现，并有助于预测这些先锋群落的生态功能的未来意义。这种多相方法以前从未被应用于两极地区的土壤藻类和蓝藻，因此是这一提议的关键创新之一。

Terrestrial green algae and cyanobacteria are typical and abundant components of biological soil crusts in the polar regions. These communities form water-stable aggregates that have important ecological roles in primary production, nitrogen fixation, nutrient cycling, water retention and stabilization of soils. Although available data on green algae and cyanobacteria are generally very limited for the Arctic and Antarctica, their functional importance as ecosystem developers in nutrient poor environments is regarded as high. Therefore, the main goal of the interdisciplinary project is, for the first time, a precise evaluation of their 1.) biodiversity as well as of 2.) the infra-specific genetic diversity, 3.) ecophysiological performance and 4.) transcriptomics of the most abundant taxa in biological soil crusts isolated from the Antarctic Peninsula and Arctic Svalbard. Biodiversity will be investigated using a classical culture approach in combination with molecular-taxonomical methods as well as with metagenomics. The infra-specific genetic diversity of the most abundant green algae and cyanobacteria will be studied using fingerprinting techniques, and a range of selected populations characterised in relation to their physiological plasticity. Temperature and water availability, two key environmental factors for terrestrial organisms, are currently changing in polar regions due to global warming, and hence their effect on growth and photosynthesis response patterns will be comparatively investigated. The data will indicate whether and how global change influence population structure and ecological performance of key organisms in polar soil crusts, and help to make predictions on the future significance of the ecological functions of these pioneer communities. Such a multiphasic approach has never been applied before to soil algae and cyanobacteria in both polar regions, and hence represents one of the key innovations of this proposal.