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Project Description-
• Despite recent advances in environmental microbiology, our understanding of the factors that control microbial community composition and dynamics is still limited, and the links between community composition and functioning are not well understood. The central hypothesis explored at this microbial observatory is that gradients of resources and stress are the primary drivers of the size, diversity, dynamics, activity, and growth strategies (biofilm formation) of the microbial community throughout the soil profile.
•The laboratory is located at the Sedgwick Reserve, a site of active collaborative work on landscape processes, soil dynamics, plant community structure, and soil microbial processes in the California annual grassland/oak savanna ecosystem. Extensive manipulative studies of microbial communities are being performed to a depth of about 4 meters. Soil moisture and temperature are monitored to evaluate stress gradients, while substrate gradients are assayed through a combination of physical soil, organic matter fractionation, and bioassay approaches. Measurements also include microbial biomass, as well as total and active numbers of bacteria and fungi, molecular measures of bacterial community structure and composition, and metabolic capabilities. In addition, this project examines how the microbial microhabitat changes along stress and resource gradients by examining the extent of biofilm formation and extracellular polysaccharide production, which appear to be central components of bacterial stress responses.
Principal Investigators-
Joshua P. Schimel and
Patricia A. Holden,
University of California,
Santa Barbara
Online Information-
Microbial Observatory at Sedgwick Reserve
NSF abstract
Sedgwick Reserve
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