Drifting along: using diatoms to track the contribution of microbial mats to particulate organic matter transport in a glacial meltwater stream in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: Flow pulses mobilize particulate organic matter (POM) in streams from the surrounding landscape and streambed. This POM serves as a source of energy and nutrients, as well as a means for organismal dispersal, to downstream communities. In the barren terrestrial landscape of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica, benthic microbial mats occupying different in-stream habitat types are the dominant POM source in the many glacier-fed streams. Many of these streams experience daily flow peaks that mobilize POM, and diatoms recovered from underlying stream sediments suggest that mat-derived diatoms in the POM are retained there through hyporheic exchange. Yet, 'how much' and 'when' different in-stream habitat types contribute to POM diatom assemblages is unknown. To quantify the contributio

SUBMITTER: Stanish LF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11112031 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature