Projects per year
Abstract
Cryoconite holes are known as foci of microbial diversity and activity on polar glacier surfaces, but are virtually unexplored microbial habitats in alpine regions. In addition, whether cryoconite community structure reflects ecosystem functionality is poorly understood. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and Fourier transform infrared metabolite fingerprinting of cryoconite from glaciers in Austria, Greenland and Svalbard demonstrated cryoconite bacterial communities are closely correlated with cognate metabolite fingerprints. The influence of bacterial-associated fatty acids and polysaccharides was inferred, underlining the importance of bacterial community structure in the properties of cryoconite. Thus, combined application of T-RFLP and FT-IR metabolite fingerprinting promises high throughput, and hence, rapid assessment of community structure–function relationships. Pyrosequencing revealed Proteobacteria were particularly abundant, with Cyanobacteria likely acting as ecosystem engineers in both alpine and Arctic cryoconite communities. However, despite these generalities, significant differences in bacterial community structures, compositions and metabolomes are found between alpine and Arctic cryoconite habitats, reflecting the impact of local and regional conditions on the challenges of thriving in glacial ecosystems.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 222-237 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | FEMS Microbiology Ecology |
Volume | 89 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 04 Aug 2014 |
Keywords
- cryoconite
- glacier
- Svalbard
- Greenland
- Tyrol
- metabolome
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Dive into the research topics of 'Coupled cryoconite ecosystem structure–function relationships are revealed by comparing bacterial communities in alpine and Arctic glaciers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
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Arwyn Edwards
- Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Department of Life Sciences - Reader in Biology
Person: Teaching And Research
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Are glacier surfaces the last refuge of an evolutionary ancient lineage of unknown fungi?
Natural Environment Research Council
05 Sept 2012 → 04 Mar 2015
Project: Externally funded research