Microbial heterotrophy in reducing habitats

微生物在海洋生态系统中发挥着至关重要的作用，通过其分解活动使有机物质和营养物质循环利用。我们一般都知道，海洋微生物群落通过调整其代谢途径（功能反应）或改变其物种组成（结构反应）来适应环境变化。该研究方案将研究在深海热液喷口和缺氧峡湾的极端生境中，在不同类型的环境强迫下，这两种类型的反应的相对重要性。我们将比较这些反应机制的酶和遗传指纹的微生物样本收集的对比喷口栖息地，并从不同的点缺氧和再氧化的峡湾的深沃茨的循环。这项研究将有应用程序，了解微生物群落动态的沿海沃茨受到营养负荷压力，从污水和水产养殖。 海底微生物群落的耗氧和硫化氢产生可深刻影响鱼类和无脊椎动物生境的适宜性。

Microorganisms play a vital role in marine ecosystems by recycling organic matter and nutrients through their decomposition activity. We know in a general way that communities of marine microbes adapt to changes in their environment by adjusting their metabolic pathways (functional response) or by changing their species composition (structural response). This research program will examine the relative importance of these two types of response, under different types of environmental forcing, in the extreme habitats found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and in an anoxic fjord. We will compare these response mechanisms by enzyme and genetic fingerprinting of microbial samples collected from contrasting vent habitats, and from different points in the cycle of anoxia and re-oxygenation of the deep waters of the fjord. This research will have applications for understanding microbial community dynamics in coastal waters subject to nutrient loading stress from sewage and aquaculture.  Oxygen consumption and hydrogen sulphide production by seafloor microbial communities can profoundly affect habitat suitability for fish and invertebrates.