Macrosystems Results for ITS in 7 Plot Soil Samples (UCLUST - Resampled)

Patterns of biodiversity, such as the increase toward the tropics and the peaked curve during ecological succession, are fundamental phenomena for ecology. Such patterns have multiple, interacting causes, but temperature emerges as a dominant factor across organisms from microbes to trees and mammals, and across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments. However, there is little consensus on the underlying mechanisms, even as global temperatures increase and the need to predict their effects becomes more pressing. The purpose of this project is to generate and test theory for how temperature impacts biodiversity through its effect on biochemical processes and metabolic rate. A combination of standardized surveys in the field and controlled experiments in the field and laboratory measure diversity of three taxa -- trees, invertebrates, and microbes -- and key biogeochemical processes of decomposition in seven forests distributed along a geographic gradient of increasing temperature from cold temperate to warm tropical. This data set captures abundance of OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units) sampled for in forest soils at the original six sampling sites (HJ Andrews, Niwot, Harvard Forest, Coweeta, Luquillo, Barro Colorado Island) plus the new site set up by the Enquist Lab at Mt. Bigelow near Tucson, AZ. This data represents abundance of ITS (fungi) genes in soil samples processed by the University of Oklahoma Institute for Environmental Genomics as part of a macrosystems biodiversity and latitude project supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement DEB#1065836.

生物多样性格局——诸如向热带地区递增的分布规律与生态演替过程中的单峰曲线——是生态学的基础性核心现象。这类格局存在多种相互作用的驱动因子，但温度被证实为跨类群（从微生物、树木到哺乳动物）以及跨陆地、海洋与淡水生境的主导影响因子。然而，即便在全球气温持续上升、预测其生态效应的需求愈发迫切的当下，学界对其背后的潜在机制仍未达成广泛共识。本研究的核心目标是构建并检验温度通过影响生化过程与代谢速率，进而作用于生物多样性的相关理论。本研究结合标准化野外调查与野外、实验室可控对照实验，对沿温度梯度（从寒温带至暖热带的7处森林）分布的三大类群——树木、无脊椎动物与微生物——的多样性，以及分解作用这一关键生物地球化学过程进行测定。本数据集涵盖了最初6个采样点（HJ安德鲁斯、尼沃特、哈佛森林、考伊塔、卢奎略、巴罗科罗拉多岛）以及由恩奎斯特实验室在亚利桑那州图森附近的比格洛山新建采样点的森林土壤样本中的OTU（操作分类单元，Operational Taxonomic Unit）丰度数据。本数据为美国国家科学基金会合作协议DEB#1065836资助的宏系统生物多样性与纬度项目的一部分，由俄克拉荷马大学环境基因组学研究所对土壤样本中的ITS（真菌）基因进行测序并统计得到其丰度信息。