Microbial diversity-ecosystem function relationships across environmental gradients

鉴于全球生态系统的人为压力日益增加，生物多样性变化与生态系统功能之间的关系是一个紧迫的问题，因为人类生活依赖于地球冠层和基岩之间关键地带生物的这些功能。特别是，土壤在养分循环、促进植物生长、水净化、凋落物分解和碳储存方面发挥着至关重要的作用，从而确保食物和水的安全并稳定气候。土壤的功能在很大程度上是由复杂的微生物群落承担的，如细菌、古细菌、真菌和原生生物。微生物多样性的评估和微生物组的功能潜力继续构成重大挑战。下一代测序提供了一些最有前途的工具来帮助阐明微生物多样性-功能关系。有关微生物多样性和生态系统功能的研究很少，特别是关于这种关系如何受环境梯度影响的研究。本项目重点研究分解作为土壤微生物生态系统最重要的功能之一。来自德国哈雷-耶纳-莱比锡综合生物多样性研究中心（iDiv）的科学家们结合了从下一代基于测序的微生物群落分析（“元组学”）到土壤生态学和生物多样性-生态系统功能研究的无与伦比的专业知识。该联盟将利用来自大型国际网络的土壤样本，在分类和功能水平以及跨生命领域评估微生物多样性。通过将微生物多样性与分解和环境梯度的功能测量联系起来，该项目旨在全面了解环境驱动因素和人为影响对微生物群落结构和功能多样性的影响，以及对生态系统功能的后续影响。

In light of increasing anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems around the globe, the question how biodiversity change relates to ecosystem functions is an urgent issue, as human life relies on these functions of organisms in the critical zone between Earth’s canopies and bedrock. Particularly, soils play vital roles in nutrient cycling, promotion of plant growth, water purification, litter decomposition, and carbon storage, thereby securing food and water and stabilizing the climate. Soil functions are carried to a large part by complex communities of microorganisms, such as bacteria, archaea, fungi and protists. The assessment of microbial diversity and the microbiome's functional potential continues to pose significant challenges. Next generation sequencing offers some of the most promising tools to help shedding light on microbial diversity-function relationships. Studies relating microbial diversity and ecosystem functions are rare, particularly those on how this relationship is influenced by environmental gradients. The proposed project focuses on decomposition as one of the most important microbial soil ecosystem functions. The researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig combine an unparalleled range of expertise from next generation sequencing- based analysis of microbial communities (“meta-omics”) to soil ecology and biodiversity-ecosystem function research. This consortium will make use of soil samples from large international networks to assess microbial diversity both at the taxonomic and functional level and across the domains of life. By linking microbial diversity to functional measurements of decomposition and environmental gradients, the proposed project aims to achieve a comprehensive scale-independent understanding of environmental drivers and anthropogenic effects on the structural and functional diversity of microbial communities and subsequent consequences for ecosystem functioning.