Impacts of environmental change and human activity on microbial ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau, NW China

[摘要] Microorganismsplay important roles in maintaining ecosystem functions. It is poorly known, however,how microbial ecosystems respond to environmentalchanges and human activities. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that themicrobial record in lake sediments and ice cores contains a wealth of paleoenvironmentaland paleoclimatic information. Saline lakes on the Tibetan Plateau exhibit multipleenvironmental gradients and have accumulated thick sequences of sediments throughtime. Microbial abundance and species diversity vary considerably along environmentalgradients across the plateau. Studies of lake sediments reveal that wet and warmclimates are correlated with high bacterial abundance and diversity, whereas coldand dry climates result in low abundance and diversity. Recent human activitieshave enhanced sulfate reduction in lake sediments. Ice cores from the plateau revealthat bacterial abundance and diversity are positively correlated with dust particleconcentration and temperature.

[学科分类] 地质学

[关键词] Fire safety;fatal fires;smoke alarms