土壤中的生物多样性与生态系统功能

我们回顾了目前关于土壤生物多样性及其在生态系统过程中的作用、对于人类目标的重要性及对胁迫和扰动的恢复能力等的研究进展。现存物种的数量远远大于人们已经描述的数量,即使是对于肉眼可见的分类群也是如此。而且也普遍缺乏在生物地理学上的综合描述。迫切需要在分类学和对新一代系统科学家培训上做更大努力。尤其是应当集中致力于就我们所知。对生态系统功能起关键作用的土壤生物类群方面。为了确定这种类群,需要对土壤生物区系的影响圈(sphere of Influence,SOI),如根的生物区系、有机物质破碎者(shredder)和土壤生物扰动者(bioturbator)加以识别,这些影响圈比如可能通过与植物的相互作用而控制着生态系统的过程。在这些SOI中,我们分析出了土壤有机体的功能类群。最迫切需要研究的问题是将物种按功能类群进行区分,并确定功能类群中的物种冗余。这种迫切性是根据为阐述与集约化农业、森林扰动、环境污染和全球环境变化有关的土壤功能丧失程度的需要而确定的。目前认为最处于危险的土壤生物区系是那些大型动物群的有机物破碎者、土壤生物扰动者、某些专门的细菌(如硝化细菌和固氮菌)以及形成真菌的菌根中贫乏物种的功能类群。在开展这些优先性研究时,需要使用长期的和大尺度的田间试验,以及地理统计学和地理信息系统等现代方法进行试验研究。

Ranking environmental and edaphic attributes driving soil microbial community structure and activity with special attention to spatial and temporal scales

The incredibly complex soil microbial communities at small scales make their analysis and identification of reasons for the observed structures challenging.Microbial community structure is mainly a result of the inoculum(dispersal),the selective advantages of those organisms under the habitat-based environmental attributes,and the ability of those colonizers to sustain themselves over time.Since soil is protective,and its microbial inhabitants have long adapted to varied soil conditions,significant portions of the soil microbial community structure are likely stable.Hence,a substantial portion of the community will not correlate to often measured soil attributes.We suggest that the drivers be ranked on the basis of their importance to the fundamental needs of the microbes:(i)those that supply energy,i.e.,organic carbon and electron acceptors;(i)environmental effectors or stressors,i.e.,pH,salt,drought,and toxic chemicals;(ii)macro-organism associations,i.e.,plants and their seasonality,animals and their fecal matter,and soil fauna;and(iv)nutrients,in order,N,P,and probably of lesser importance,other micronutrients,and metals.The relevance of drivers also varies with spatial and time scales,for example,aggregate to field to regional,and persistent to dynamic populations to transcripts,and with the extent of phylogenetic difference,hence phenotypic differences in organismal groups.We present a summary matrix to provide guidance on which drivers are important for particular studies,with special emphasis on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales,and illustrate this with genomic and population(rRNA gene)data from selected studies.