Yong‐Guan Zhu, Michael Gillings, Pascal Simonet, Dov Stekel, Steven Banwart, Josep Penuelas
Abstract
Earth's Critical Zone sustains terrestrial life and consists of the thin planetary surface layer between unaltered rock and the atmospheric boundary. Within this zone, flows of energy and materials are mediated by physical processes and by the actions of diverse organisms. Human activities significantly influence these physical and biological processes, affecting the atmosphere, shallow lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. The role of organisms includes an additional class of biogeochemical cycling, this being the flow and transformation of genetic information. This is particularly the case for the microorganisms that govern carbon and nitrogen cycling. These biological processes are mediated by the expression of functional genes and their translation into enzymes that catalyze geochemical reactions. Understanding human effects on microbial activity, fitness and distribution is an important component of Critical Zone science, but is highly challenging to investigate across the enormous physical scales of impact ranging from individual organisms to the planet. One arena where this might be tractable is by studying the dynamics and dissemination of genes for antibiotic resistance and the organisms that carry such genes. Here we explore the transport and transformation of microbial genes and cells through Earth's Critical Zone. We do so by examining the origins and rise of antibiotic resistance genes, their subsequent dissemination, and the ongoing colonization of diverse ecosystems by resistant organisms.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 March 2018.
All research outputs
#6,155,755
of 23,316,003 outputs
Outputs from Global Change Biology
#4,159
of 5,804 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#121,297
of 442,260 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Global Change Biology
#94
of 122 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,316,003 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 73rd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,804 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 34.1. This one is in the 28th percentile – i.e., 28% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 442,260 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 122 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
