Moore Notes 3 30 11

Group Call

• JG will contact Michael Fischbach about chemical question

• JG traveling next Weds, but generally around this quarter

• Niche mapping paper
  • Make introduction more focused on need for paper (i.e., why global range maps are important and haven't been done yet), rather than results or mechanisms underlying diversity
    • Say that range is the fundamental unit of biogeography
    • Have been elusive for microbes, and why
    • Why this is a problem
    • We solve the problem
    • Emphasize impact of microbe ranges on biogeochemistry/ecosystem services
  • Maybe we should hedge or Rapoport's rule?
    • Steve: classically ranges span 7 orders of magnitude, but we look at a few degrees of latitude
    • Have to address the fact that we drop all taxa with small ranges
    • Usual explanation is mechanistic and relates to variability of environment (there is more at poles in ocean, but it is damped vs. land)
    • KP: report result, but clarify that can't really test Rapoport's Rule with common taxa only
  • Can we say something about which predictors are selected across genera?
    • Temperature is most common, but most others are commonly used also - not a lot of variation
    • Need to highlight why microbes like the arctic (reference Furman paper about temperature)
    • Some phyla respond to other things, like cyanobacteria which respond to sunlight and are maximal at tropics
  • Tom: oceanographic/environmental trends that might relate to our diversity results
    • Polar peaks
      • Cold water is higher in gaseous content (e.g., dissolved O2)
      • More upwelling/mixing in polar oceans
    • Asymmetry of hemispheres
      • Less land runoff in antarctic vs. arctic (affects salinity)
      • Phosphate concentration higher in Southern Ocean
    • JG: How do these results relate to rank abundance curves?
  • James: Genus area relationship (GAR)
    • GAR depends on sampling depth (totally flat if you turn it up to infinite sampling)
    • At genus level ranges are very large
    • KP: what about an estimate of what GAR looks like at the currently available data sampling depth and distribution
      • James: we're close to a flat GAR already
    • Josh: Fits in with other diversity results and how they change through space
    • James: Would be better to do at species level (e.g., with PhylOTU)
  • Alex's phylum level diversity plots will be integrated in next week
    • Richness
    • Shannon diversity
  • Web portal for data and maps
  • Josh will send revised draft this weekend, followed by another round of edits by all