On December 21st, 2016, the journal “Nature Communications” published the study paper “Nutrient Enrichment Modifies Temperature-biodiversity Relationships in large-scale Field Experiments” on maintaining mechanism of microbial diversity jointly written by Wang Jianjun, Shen Ji and others from Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The study selected the bacteria in the two areas subtropical (China) and subarctic (Norway) as the research object, and adopted the experimental methods of adding the nutrient salt according to the altitudinal gradient, to explore the effect of nutrient salt and temperature on the water bacterial diversity. The research indicates that the bacterial community showed regular succession along with the temperature gradient or the mountain vertical climatic zones. In detail, the community in low latitude and high altitude area is more similar to that in high latitude area, or the community in high latitude and low altitude area is more similar to that in low latitude area. This is the first report on the distribution of microbial flora, which is consistent with the classic distribution of the flora of plants or animals. Under the condition of extreme nutrient salt, the temperature has a strongest effect on the diversity of bacteria. Under the medium temperature condition, the nutrient salt has a strongest effect on the bacterial diversity. In both the subtropical and the subarctic area, the strongest effect of temperature on the rate of species succession are respectively reflected under the medium nutrient salt condition and the extreme nutrient salt condition. In addition, the rate of species succession caused by nutrient salt does not increase with the increase of temperature.
The study reveals the coupling relationship between the bacterial diversity and temperature as well as nutrient salt. This relationship helps to explain the global biodiversity, and provided scientific reference for the effects of nutrient salt enrichment on the biodiversity under future climate conditions.
The study is jointly completed by Nanjing Institute of Geography Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with Nanjing Normal University, University of Helsinki, Finland Environmental Research Institute, and other partners. It is supported by National Natural Science Foundation, National Key Research and Development Program, Frontier Science Key Research Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Air and Water Conservation Fund, Emil Aaltonen Fund, Visiting Scholar Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, International Partnership Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other projects. Taihu Lake Ecosystem Research Station of Chinese Academy of Sciences provides data support.
For detail information please refer to the paper:
J. Wang, F. Pan, J. Soininen, J. Heino, J. Shen, Nutrient enrichment modifies temperature-biodiversity relationships in large-scale field experiments. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13960.
