Microbial diversity and food web complexity over time and space in Arctic seas and associated coastal regions

在海洋生态系统将如何应对持续的气候扰动和其他人为压力方面，尤其是在北极，在知识方面存在重大差距。北极现在比地球上其他地区变暖得更快，改变了整个地区的水温、盐度和混合模式。这些都会影响浮游生物的营养供应，并对浮游微生物群落的物种组成产生深远的影响，浮游微生物群落是北极所有海洋食物网的基础。如果生产被及时取代或现有物种被营养价值较低的物种取代，高级食物网可能会发生重大变化，因为从浮游动物到海豹的北极海洋动物的生命周期与关键生命阶段特定食物来源的可预测出现密切相关。变化的快速步伐要求对特定条件下微生物群落的选择机制以及这些群落对物理和生物变化的适应能力有新的见解。需要更多地了解碳和氮的循环和矿化的各种代谢途径，以确保在变化的背景下进行知情的规划。我们将通过对广泛的地点进行抽样来调查这些问题，以确定微生物的代谢能力、物种分布、多样性和在不同条件下的存活率。这份北方补充资料将支持我基于Discovery的研究，即北冰洋食物网底部的微生物群落是如何形成的，它们随着时间的推移而保持的健壮性，以及哪些因素迫使群落内部发生变化。此外，该补编将提供机会对广泛的沿海环境进行采样，并了解近岸浮游生物的生物多样性，以及耐盐和淡水微生物群落，从而提供更完整的北方微生物资源清单。这项研究将提供衡量北极生物多样性和生态系统可持续性的新工具，并使协商、培训和与北方社区的接触成为可能。

There are major gaps in knowledge of how marine ecosystems will respond to continued climate perturbations and other anthropogenic stressors, especially in the Arctic. The Arctic is now warming more rapidly than other regions of the planet, changing the patterns of water temperature, salinity and mixing across the region. These affect the nutrient supply to the plankton, and have a profound influence on the species composition of planktonic microbial communities, which are the base of all Arctic marine food webs. If production is displaced in time or the present species are replaced by less nutritionally valuable species major changes in higher food webs could occur, since life cycles of Arctic marine animals from zooplankton to seals are strongly linked to the predictable appearance of specific food sources during critical life stages. The fast pace of change requires new insights into mechanisms selecting for microbial communities occurring under specific conditions and the resilience of these communities to physical and biological changes. Increased understanding of the diverse metabolic pathways that recycle and mineralize carbon and nitrogen is needed to ensure informed planning in the context of change. We will investigate these questions by sampling a wide range of sites to define microbial metabolic capacity, species distribution, diversity, and survival under different conditions. This Northern supplement will support my Discovery based research on how microbial communities at the base of the Arctic Ocean food web are formed, their robustness over time and what factors force changes within the communities. In addition the supplement will provide the opportunity to sample a wide range of coastal environments and gain knowledge of the biodiversity of near-shore plankton, and salt tolerant and freshwater microbial communities providing a more complete inventory of microbial resources in the north. This research will provide new tools to measure Arctic biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability, and enable consultation, training and outreach to Northern communities.