Microbial processes and factors controlling their activities in alkaline lakes of the Mongolian plateau

A striking feature of the Mongolian plateau is the wide range of air temperatures during a year,-30 to 30°C.High summer temperatures,atmospheric weathering and the arid climate lead to formation of numerous alkaline soda lakes that are covered by ice during 6–7 months per year.During the study period,the lakes had p H values between 8.1 to 10.4 and salinity between 1.8 and 360 g/L.According to chemical composition,the lakes belong to sodium carbonate,sodium chloride-carbonate and sodium sulfate-carbonate types.This paper presents the data on the water chemical composition,results of the determination of the rates of microbial processes in microbial mats and sediments in the lakes studied,and the results of a Principal Component Analysis of environmental variables and microbial activity data.Temperature was the most important factor that influenced both chemical composition and microbial activity.p H and salinity are also important factors for the microbial processes.Dark CO 2 fixation is impacted mostly by salinity and the chemical composition of the lake water.Total photosynthesis and sulfate-reduction are impacted mostly by p H.Photosynthesis is the dominant process of primary production,but the highest rate(386 mg C/(L?d)) determined in the lakes studied were 2–3 times lower than in microbial mats of lakes located in tropical zones.This can be explained by the relatively short warm period that lasts only 3–4 months per year.The highest measured rate of dark CO 2 assimilation(59.8 mg C/(L?d)) was much lower than photosynthesis.The highest rate of sulfate reduction was 60 mg S/(L?d),while that of methanogenesis was 75.6 μLСН 4 /(L?d) in the alkaline lakes of Mongolian plateau.The rate of organic matter consumption during sulfate reduction was 3–4 orders of magnitude higher than that associated with methanogenesis.     

蒙古中部地区植被覆盖衰退问题案例研究（英文）

本文选择蒙古中部地区的两个模型多边形对植被多样性进行调查研究。它们都位于干旱、半干旱少雨地区。基于Landsat TM影像,本文研究了多边形区域的NDVI随时间变化的多时相NDVI值制图,得到所选择的具备不同值NDVI区域的全尺度景观特征。这一特征在对耐旱环境组的植被分析中得到了证实。该过程中将近整个实验多边形区域的植被偏离得到了追踪。NDVI的时间分布分析呈现出数值的降低,这说明了在戈壁,稀疏植被存在耐旱趋势。在半干旱气候区域中偏离植被趋势与牧草地的重载负直接相关。