Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Moshe Shilo Minerva Center for Marine Biogeochemistry, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2010 Apr;72(1):103-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2010.00835.x. Epub 2010 Jan 19.
The thermal springs of Zerka Ma'in, with waters emerging at temperatures up to 63 degrees C, have been of interest to biologists already from the beginning of the 19th century. These waters, springing out from below ground and flowing into the hypersaline Dead Sea, form an isolated environment from a biogeographic point of view. We have investigated the molecular diversity of the cyanobacteria in the springs. The diversity discovered was large, defining operational taxonomic units (OTUs) by a cutoff of 97% similarity; 10 major OTUs were found, including an as yet unidentified cluster of cyanobacteria. The various patterns of similarities of our sequences to others obtained from different thermal environments worldwide led us to rethink the common theories in biogeography. Based on the data obtained, we suggest that there is no constant geographical separation of microorganisms; however, local speciation does occur at a rate dictated mainly by local community dynamics and the rate of entrance of new organisms into the ecosystem.
泽尔卡迈因的热泉，其水温高达 63 摄氏度，从 19 世纪初就引起了生物学家的关注。从生物地理学的角度来看，这些从地下涌出并流入高盐度死海的水形成了一个孤立的环境。我们已经调查了温泉中的蓝细菌的分子多样性。发现的多样性很大，通过 97%相似度的截止值定义了操作分类单元（OTUs）；发现了 10 个主要的 OTUs，包括一个尚未确定的蓝细菌群。我们的序列与从世界各地不同热环境中获得的其他序列的相似模式使我们重新思考生物地理学中的常见理论。基于获得的数据，我们认为微生物没有固定的地理隔离；然而，确实会发生局部物种形成，其速度主要取决于当地群落动态和新生物体进入生态系统的速度。
