Historical Factors Associated With Past Environments Influence the Biogeography of Thermophilic Endospores in Arctic Marine Sediments.

ABSTRACT: Selection by the local, contemporary environment plays a prominent role in shaping the biogeography of microbes. However, the importance of historical factors in microbial biogeography is more debatable. Historical factors include past ecological and evolutionary circumstances that may have influenced present-day microbial diversity, such as dispersal and past environmental conditions. Diverse thermophilic sulfate-reducing Desulfotomaculum are present as dormant endospores in marine sediments worldwide where temperatures are too low to support their growth. Therefore, they are dispersed to here from elsewhere, presumably a hot, anoxic habitat. While dispersal through ocean currents must influence their distribution in cold marine sediments, it is not clear whether even earlier histo

SUBMITTER: Hanson CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6403435 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature