Glaciers constitute a polyextremophilic environment characterized by low temperatures, high solar radiation, a lack of nutrients, and low water availability. However, glaciers located in volcanic regions have special characteristics, since the volcanic foci provide them with heat and nutrients that allow the growth of microbial communities highly adapted to this environment. Most of the studies on these glacial ecosystems have been carried out in volcanic environments in the northern hemisphere, including Iceland and the Pacific Northwest. To better know, the microbial diversity of the underexplored glacial ecosystems and to check what their specific characteristics were, we studied the structure of bacterial communities living in volcanic glaciers in Deception Island, Antarctica, and in the Kamchatka peninsula. In addition to geographic coordinates, many other glacier environmental factors (like volcanic activity, altitude, temperature, pH, or ice chemical composition) that can influence the diversity and distribution of microbial communities were considered in this study. Finally, using their taxonomic assignments, an attempt was made to compare how different or similar are the biogeochemical cycles in which these microbiomes are involved.
Over the last years, perennial ice deposits located within caves have awakened interest as places to study microbial communities since they represent unique cryospheric archives of climate change. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the temperature has gradually increased, and it is estimated that by the end of this century the increase in average temperature could be around 4.0°C. In this context of global warming the ice deposits of the Pyrenean caves are undergoing a significant regression. Among this type of caves, that on the Cotiella Massif in the Southern Pyrenees is one of the southernmost studied in Europe. These types of caves house microbial communities which have so far been barely explored, and therefore their study is necessary. In this work, the microbial communities of the Pyrenean ice cave A294 were identified using metabarcoding techniques. In addition, research work was carried out to analyze how the age and composition of the ice affect the composition of the bacterial and microeukaryotic populations. Finally, the in vivo effect of climate change on the cellular machinery that allow microorganisms to live with increasing temperatures has been studied using proteomic techniques.
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