植物生态学报 ›› 2020, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (4): 384-394.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2019.0139

所属专题: 全球变化与生态系统 生态学研究的技术和方法

• 综述 • 上一篇    下一篇

生物标志物及其在生态系统研究中的应用

冯晓娟1,2,*(),王依云1,2,刘婷1,贾娟1,戴国华1,马田1,2,刘宗广1   

  1. 1中国科学院植物研究所植被与环境变化国家重点实验室, 北京 100093
    2中国科学院大学资源与环境学院, 北京 100049
  • 收稿日期:2019-06-06 接受日期:2019-08-22 出版日期:2020-04-20 发布日期:2019-10-21
  • 通讯作者: 冯晓娟 ORCID:0000-0002-0443-0628
  • 基金资助:
    国家重点研发计划(2017YFC0503902);国家重点基础研究发展计划(973计划)(2015CB954201);中国科学院创新交叉团队项目(JCTD-2018-06)

Biomarkers and their applications in ecosystem research

FENG Xiao-Juan1,2,*(),WANG Yi-Yun1,2,LIU Ting1,JIA Juan1,DAI Guo-Hua1,MA Tian1,2,LIU Zong-Guang1   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    2College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2019-06-06 Accepted:2019-08-22 Online:2020-04-20 Published:2019-10-21
  • Contact: FENG Xiao-Juan ORCID:0000-0002-0443-0628
  • Supported by:
    National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFC0503902);State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China(2015CB954201);Chinese Academy of Sciences Interdisciplinary Project(JCTD-2018-06)

摘要:

生物标志物是环境和地质体中记载着原始生物母质分子结构信息的有机化合物, 其含量可以指征特定生物来源对天然有机质的相对贡献, 其组成和同位素信息还可以记录有机质的转化及环境信息。与传统元素及组分分析相比, 生物标志物为研究天然有机质的来源、动态变化和转化特征提供了具有高度专一性和灵敏度的工具, 因此, 近年来被广泛地应用于生态学和生物地球化学研究中。特别是, 与生态系统观测以及控制实验相结合, 生物标志物在揭示微生物的活性与碳源变化、土壤有机碳的稳定机制及其对全球变化的响应等方面显示了广阔的应用前景。近些年开发的生物标志物单体同位素分析也在生态系统碳氮周转与食物网研究等方面显示了巨大的研究潜力。基于此, 该文综述了生态系统研究中常用的生物标志物的种类、分析方法和应用方向, 总结了生物标志物研究目前存在的问题, 并对未来的研究方向进行了展望, 旨在为使用生物标志物的生态学和环境科学研究者提供参考。

关键词: 生物标志物, 生态系统研究, 土壤有机质, 单体同位素分析, 碳循环, 食物网

Abstract:

Biomarkers are biogenic organic compounds that carry the chemical structures specific to their biological sources and survive long-term preservation in environmental and geological systems. The abundance of biomarkers may indicate the relative contribution of specific biological sources to the natural organic matter while their chemical and isotopic compositions may also inform on the transformation stage of organic matter and the environmental settings. Compared with conventional bulk analysis, biomarkers offer highly specific and sensitive tools to track the sources, transformation and dynamic changes of natural organic matter components and have therefore been widely used in ecological and biogeochemical studies in the past decades. In particular, combined with ecosystem observations and control experiments, biomarkers have shown great potentials in revealing changes in microbial activity and carbon sources, soil organic matter dynamics, stabilization mechanisms and response to global changes. The recently-developed biomarker-specific isotope analysis also exhibits a great promise in revealing ecosystem carbon and nitrogen turnover and food web structures. This review summarizes several major categories of commonly used biomarkers, their analytical methods, applications in ecosystem studies and existing pitfalls, and discusses future directions of research to provide guidance for biomarker users in ecology and environmental sciences.

Key words: biomarker, ecosystem research, soil organic matter, compound-specific isotope analysis, carbon cycling, food web