2023年，团队成员魏超等在期刊“Environmental Science and Pollution Research”上发表题目为“Spatial distribution characteristics of denitrification functional genes and the environmental drivers in Liaohe estuary wetland”的论文，研究调查了辽河河口湿地反硝化作用的细菌群落、基因多样性和相对丰度。使用Illumina MiSeq测序分析了在温暖和寒冷条件下含有这三个基因的细菌的相对丰度、多样性和群落，并使用随机森林检测了影响其分布的潜在环境因素，发现基因nirS、nirK和nosZ对反硝化过程具有特异性，反硝化过程与温室气体N₂O排放有关，含有这三个基因的群落的丰度和多样性通常被用作反映反硝化过程的共同指标，它们会受到由暖到冷条件变化引起的环境因素差异的影响。

Abstract Genes nirS, nirK, and nosZ are specific for the denitrification process, which is associated with greenhouse gas N2O emission. The abundances and diversities of community containing these three genes are usually used as a common index to reflect the denitrification process, and they would be affected by differences in environmental factors caused by changes from warm to cold conditions. The quantification of denitrification in natural wetlands is complex, and straightforward identification of spatial distribution and drivers affecting the process is still developing. In this study, the bacterial communities, gene diversities, and relative abundances involved in denitrification were investigated in Liaohe Estuary Wetland. We analyzed the relative abundances, diversities, and communities of bacteria containing the three genes at warm and cold conditions using Illumina MiSeq sequencing and detected the potential environmental factors influencing their distribution by using a random forest algorithm. There are great differences in the community composition of the bacteria containing genes nirS, nirK, and nosZ. All the abundant taxa of nirS and nirK communities belonged to phylum Proteobacteria. Compared with the community composition of bacteria containing nirS and nirK, the community of bacteria containing nosZ is more diverse, and the subdivision taxa of phylum Euryarchaeota was also abundant in the community containing nosZ. The distribu- tion characteristics of the relative abundance of nirS and nirK showed obvious differences both at warm and cold climate conditions. The oxidation–reduction potential, nitrite nitrogen, and salinity were detected as potential variables that might explain the diversity of nirS. The total nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen were the important variables for predicting the relative abundance of nirS at warm climate condition, while oxidation–reduction potential and pH contributed to the diversity of nirS at cold condition. The bulk density of sediment was detected as a potential variable affecting the relative abundance of nirK at warm and cold conditions, and diversity of nirK at warm condition, while nitrite nitrogen was detected as an important environmental factor for predicting the diversity of nirK at cold condition. Overall, our results show that the key environmental factors, which affect the relative abundance, diversity, and community of bacteria containing the functional denitrification genes, are not exactly the same, and the diversities of nirS, nirK, and nosZ have a higher environmental sen- sitivity than their relative abundances.

原文链接：https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30938-2