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2010 GSA Annual Meeting & Exposition, p. 13 VOL. 20, No. 6 A PUBLICATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA JUNE 2010 Impacts of environmental change and human activity on microbial ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau, NW China Inside: ▲ Letter, p. 10 ▲ Dialogue, p. 11 ▲ Call for GSA Committee Service, p. 44 ▲ Groundwork: Innovations in the built environment for earth science, p. 52 VOLUME 20, NUMBER 6 ▲ JUNE 2010 SCIENCE ARTICLE 4 Impacts of environmental GSA TODAY publishes news and information for more than 22,000 GSA members and subscribing libraries. GSA TODAY change and human activity on (ISSN 1052-5173 USPS 0456-530) is published 11 times per microbial ecosystems on the year, monthly, with a combined April/May issue, by The Geological Society of America®, Inc., with offices at 3300 Tibetan Plateau, NW China Penrose Place, Boulder, Colorado. Mailing address: P.O. Box Hailiang Dong, Hongchen Jiang, 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA. 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Impacts of environmental change and human activity on microbial ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau, NW China Hailiang Dong, Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environ- is thought to be inappropriate for reconstruction of paleoenvi- mental Geology of Ministry of Education, China University of ronmental conditions because microorganisms continue to be Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China; Geomicrobiology Lab- active after deposition, and their measured abundance and di- oratory, State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and versity today may not reflect community structure and func- Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, tions in the past. However, several studies have shown that 100083, China; and Dept. of Geology, Miami University, certain groups of microorganisms preserved in lake sediments, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA, [email protected]; Hongchen such as phototrophs and aerobes, may be useful in reconstruct- Jiang, Bingsong Yu, Geomicrobiology Laboratory, State Key ing recent environmental changes (Coolen et al., 2004a, 2004b, Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, 2006, 2008). These studies are limited to a few geographic loca- China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China; tions, and the impacts of climate changes on microbial ecosys- Xingqi Liu, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environ- tems are still poorly understood. ment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Nanjing, The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that the microbial 210008, China; and Chuanlun Zhang, Dept. of Marine Sci- record preserved in lake sediments and ice cores on the ences, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA Tibetan Plateau can be a reliable indicator of past environmen- tal change and human activity. We review and compile current literature on microbial response to environmental changes ABSTRACT (elevation, water chemistry, mountain topography, UV radiation, Microorganisms play important roles in maintaining ecosys- salinity, and temperature/precipitation) and human activities tem functions. It is poorly known, however, how microbial (agriculture and eutrophication) recorded in lake sediments of ecosystems respond to environmental changes and human the Tibetan Plateau. Data from ice core records are included to activities. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that understand the response of microbes to dust storms and the microbial record in lake sediments and ice cores contains changes in temperature. We focus on the Tibetan Plateau be- a wealth of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic informa- cause this region underwent dramatic environmental changes tion. Saline lakes on the Tibetan Plateau exhibit multiple en- in recent geological history. The microbial response to these vironmental gradients and have accumulated thick sequences dramatic changes may be of global significance because under- of sediments through time. Microbial abundance and species standing the microbial response to past environmental change diversity vary considerably along environmental gradients is a key to predicting the impacts of future climate change on across the plateau. Studies of lake sediments reveal that wet the biosphere. and warm climates are correlated with high bacterial abun- dance and diversity, whereas cold and dry climates result in CLIMATE EVOLUTION OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU low abundance and diversity. Recent human activities have The Tibetan Plateau is the largest (2 × 106 km2) and highest enhanced sulfate reduction in lake sediments. Ice cores from plateau (average ~4500 meters above sea level [masl]) on Earth. the plateau reveal that bacterial abundance and diversity are This high elevation results from the Tertiary collision between positively correlated with dust particle concentration and the Eurasian continent and the India subcontinent. The plateau temperature. is bounded by deserts of the Tarim and Qaidam Basins to the north, the Himalayan, Karakoram, and Pamir mountain chains INTRODUCTION to its south and west, and the Tanggula Mountains on the east. Recent research on biological responses to global climate The Tibetan Plateau lies at a critical and sensitive junction of change has focused on animals and plants and their interac- four climatic systems: the Westerlies, the East Asian Monsoon, tions (Pounds et al., 2006; Whitfield et al., 2007). A limited the Siberian cold polar airflow, and the India monsoon (Fig. 1). number of studies