Differential Colonization and Succession of Microbial Communities in Rock and Soil Substrates on a Maritime Antarctic Glacier Forefield.

ABSTRACT: Glacier forefields provide a unique chronosequence to assess microbial or plant colonization and ecological succession on previously uncolonized substrates. Patterns of microbial succession in soils of alpine and subpolar glacier forefields are well documented but those affecting high polar systems, including moraine rocks, remain largely unexplored. In this study, we examine succession patterns in pioneering bacterial, fungal and algal communities developing on moraine rocks and soil at the Hurd Glacier forefield (Livingston Island, Antarctica). Over time, changes were produced in the microbial community structure of rocks and soils (ice-free for different lengths of time), which differed between both substrates across the entire chronosequence, especially for bacteria and fungi. In addit

SUBMITTER: Garrido-Benavent I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018881 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature