Gullies and Moraines Are Islands of Biodiversity in an Arid, Mountain Landscape, Asgard Range, Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: Cold, dry, and nutrient-poor, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are among the most extreme terrestrial environments on Earth. Numerous studies have described microbial communities of low elevation soils and streams below glaciers, while less is known about microbial communities in higher elevation soils above glaciers. We characterized microbial life in four landscape features (habitats) of a mountain in Taylor Valley. These habitats varied significantly in soil moisture and include moist soils of a (1) lateral glacial moraine, (2) gully that terminates at the moraine, and very dry soils on (3) a southeastern slope and (4) dry sites near the gully. Using rRNA gene PCR amplicon sequencing of Bacteria and Archaea (16S SSU) and eukaryotes (18S SSU), we found that all habitat types harbore

SUBMITTER: Solon AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8222675 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature