Zhu Renbin, Shi Yu, Ma Dawei, Wang Can, Xu Hua, Chu Haiyan
Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei city, Anhui Province 230026, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210008, P.R. China.
Sci Rep. 2015 Nov 25;5:17231. doi: 10.1038/srep17231.
Current penguin activity in Antarctica affects the geochemistry of sediments and their microbial communities; the effects of historical penguin activity are less well understood. Here, bacterial diversity in ornithogenic sediment was investigated using high-throughput pyrosequencing. The relative abundances of dominant phyla were controlled by the amount of historical penguin guano deposition. Significant positive correlations were found between both the bacterial richness and diversity, and the relative penguin number (p < 0.01); this indicated that historical penguin activity drove the vertical distribution of the bacterial communities. The lowest relative abundances of individual phyla corresponded to lowest number of penguin population at 1,800-2,300 yr BP during a drier and colder period; the opposite was observed during a moister and warmer climate (1,400-1,800 yr BP). This study shows that changes in the climate over millennia affected penguin populations and the outcomes of these changes affect the sediment bacterial community today.
当前南极洲企鹅的活动影响着沉积物的地球化学及其微生物群落；而历史上企鹅活动的影响则鲜为人知。在此，利用高通量焦磷酸测序技术研究了鸟源沉积物中的细菌多样性。优势菌门的相对丰度受历史企鹅粪便沉积量的控制。细菌丰富度和多样性与企鹅相对数量之间均存在显著正相关（p < 0.01）；这表明历史上企鹅的活动推动了细菌群落的垂直分布。在公元前1800 - 2300年较干燥寒冷时期，各菌门的相对丰度最低，对应企鹅数量也最少；而在气候较湿润温暖时期（公元前1400 - 1800年）则观察到相反的情况。这项研究表明，数千年来的气候变化影响了企鹅种群，而这些变化的结果又影响了如今沉积物中的细菌群落。
