International comparison of prokaryotic biomass and biodiversity in ODP Leg 201 samples

尽管海底下生物圈估计含有世界上很大比例的活着的有机体和大多数细菌，但我们对这些细菌知之甚少，因为可以培养的细菌很少。基于DNA分析的生物多样性估计明显不一致，即使是在最高水平(域-古生菌或细菌占主导地位)。此外，有人认为细菌数量(X 10)可能比之前估计的要高得多。这些问题可能是由于世界各地的不同研究人员使用的不同方法存在偏见。为了探索这种可能性，已经建立了一个国际样本比较。卡迪夫大学是唯一被邀请参与这一倡议的英国实验室，该项目要求提供资金，使卡迪夫能够参与这一比较。这一国际比较的结果对确定潜在的地球上最大的细菌栖息地的生物量和生物多样性有深远的影响，也对其他陆地沉积物和土壤环境以及其他行星的地下环境的类似测定有影响。

Although the sub-seafloor biosphere has been estimated to contain a large proportion of the worlds living organisms and the majority of all bacteria, we know little about these bacteria as few can be cultured. Biodiversity estimates based on DNA analysis disagree markedly, even at the highest level (Domain- Archaea or Bacteria being dominant). Also, it has been suggested that bacterial numbers may be much higher (x 10) than previously estimated. These problems may be due to biases in the different methods used by various researchers worldwide. To explore this possibility an international sample comparison has been set up. Cardiff University is the only UK laboratory invited to take part in this initiative and this project requests funding to enable Cardiff to participate in this comparison. The results of this international comparison has profound implications for the determination of biomass and biodiversity in potentially the largest bacterial habitat on Earth and also has implications for similar determinations in other terrestrial sediment and soil environments, as well as subsurface environments on other planets.