Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Richland, WA, USA.
Microb Ecol. 2023 Apr;85(3):809-819. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02155-w. Epub 2023 Feb 3.
While it is now widely accepted that microorganisms provide essential functions in restoration ecology, the nature of relationships between microbial community assembly and ecosystem recovery remains unclear. There has been a longstanding challenge to decipher whether microorganisms facilitate or simply follow ecosystem recovery, and evidence for each is mixed at best. We propose that understanding microbial community assembly processes is critical to understanding the role of microorganisms during ecosystem restoration and thus optimizing management strategies. We examine how the connection between environment, community structure, and function is fundamentally underpinned by the processes governing community assembly of these microbial communities. We review important factors to consider in evaluating microbial community structure in the context of ecosystem recovery as revealed in studies of microbial succession: (1) variation in community assembly processes, (2) linkages to ecosystem function, and (3) measurable microbial community attributes. We seek to empower restoration ecology with microbial assembly and successional understandings that can generate actionable insights and vital contexts for ecosystem restoration efforts.
虽然现在人们普遍认为微生物在恢复生态学中提供了重要的功能，但微生物群落组成和生态系统恢复之间的关系的性质仍不清楚。长期以来，人们一直试图破解微生物是促进还是仅仅跟随生态系统恢复，而最好的证据是混合的。我们认为，了解微生物群落组成过程对于理解微生物在生态系统恢复过程中的作用至关重要，从而优化管理策略。我们研究了环境、群落结构和功能之间的联系是如何通过控制这些微生物群落组成的过程来从根本上支撑的。我们回顾了在评估生态系统恢复过程中微生物群落结构时需要考虑的重要因素，这些因素是从微生物演替研究中揭示出来的：（1）群落组成过程的变化，（2）与生态系统功能的联系，以及（3）可测量的微生物群落属性。我们试图通过微生物组合和演替的理解来增强恢复生态学，这些理解可以为生态系统恢复工作提供可操作的见解和重要的背景。
