Metabolically flexible microorganisms rapidly establish glacial foreland ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: An overriding question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. This question can be tested by studying colonisation of environments with little to no pre-existing life. Here, we investigated the functional basis of microbial colonisation in the forelands of a maritime Antarctic and an alpine Swiss retreating glacier, by integrating quantitative ecology, metagenomics, and biogeochemical measurements. Habitat generalists and opportunists rapidly colonise both forelands and persist across soil decadal chronosequences serving as proxies for temporal community dynamics. These microbes are metabolically flexible chemotrophic aerobes that overcome oligotrophic conditions by using organic and inorganic compounds, including atmospheric trace gases and sulphur substrates, for energy and carbon acquis

SUBMITTER: Ricci F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12749492 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature