Plant and bird presence strongly influences the microbial communities in soils of Admiralty Bay, Maritime Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the environmental factors that shape microbial communities is crucial, especially in extreme environments, like Antarctica. Two main forces were reported to influence Antarctic soil microbes: birds and plants. Both birds and plants are currently undergoing relatively large changes in their distribution and abundance due to global warming. However, we need to clearly understand the relationship between plants, birds and soil microorganisms. We therefore collected rhizosphere and bulk soils from six different sampling sites subjected to different levels of bird influence and colonized by Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctic. Microarray and qPCR assays targeting 16S rRNA genes of specific taxa were used to asse

SUBMITTER: Teixeira LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3688718 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature