新兴的地球生物学国家研究平台——生物地质与环境地质国家重点实验室

本文从学科方向规划、学术环境营造和国际合作3个方面介绍了中国地质大学生物地质与环境地质国家重点实验室的管理运行机制和实践经验.实验室力图通过研究方向规划以解决地球生物学的关键核心问题,营造自由和开放的学术氛围和团结合作的科研环境,并通过多渠道的国际合作以培养具有国际视野的杰出音年人才,最终建成具有重要国际影响的生物地质...     

Geomicrobial functional groups: A window on the interaction between life and environments

Microbes are well-known for their great diversity and abundance in modern natural environments.They also are believed to pro-vide critical links among higher organisms and their associated environments.However,the low diversity of morphological fea-tures and structures of ancient microbes preserved in sediments and rocks make them difficult to identify and classify.This diffi-culty greatly hinders the investigation of geomicrobes throughout Earth history.Thus,most previous paleontological studies have focused on faunal and floral fossils.Here,geomicrobial functional groups(GFGs),or a collection of microbes featured in specific ecological,physiological or biogeochemical functions,are suggested to provide a way to overcome the difficulties of ancient mi-crobe investigations.GFGs are known for their great diversity in ecological,physiological and biogeochemical functions.In addi-tion,GFGs may be preserved as the biogeochemical,mineralogical and sedimentological records in sediments and rocks.We reviewed the functions,origins and identification diagnostics of some important GFGs involved in the elemental cycles of carbon,sulfur,nitrogen and iron.GFGs were further discussed with respect to their significant impacts on paleoclimate,sulfur chemistry of ancient seawater,nutritional status of geological environments,and the deposition of Precambrian banded iron formations.