Biological processes on glacier surfaces affect glacier reflectance, influence surface energy budget and glacier response to climate warming, and determine glacier carbon exchange with the atmosphere. Currently, carbon balance of supraglacial environment is assessed as the balance between the activity of oxygenic phototrophs and the respiration rate of heterotrophic organisms. Here we present a metagenomic analysis of tiny wind-blown supraglacial sediment (cryoconite) from Baltoro (Pakistani Karakoram) and Forni (Italian Alps) glaciers, providing evidence for the occurrence in these environments of different and previously neglected metabolic pathways. Indeed, we observed high abundance of heterotrophic anoxygenic phototrophs, suggesting that light might directly supplement the energy demand of some bacterial strains allowing them to use as carbon source organic molecules, which otherwise would be respired. Furthermore, data suggest that CO 2 could be produced also by microbiologically mediated oxidation of CO, which may be produced by photodegradation of organic matter. The ISME Journal Climate change is determining a global cryosphere shrinkage and mountain glacier environments are declining (IPPC, 2014). The consequent loss of biodiversity is yet to be fully assessed, particularly the loss of functional biodiversity in extreme environments (Stibal et al., 2012;Boetius et al., 2015). Cryoconite holes, that is, small depressions on glacier surfaces whose formation is because of windborne debris (cryoconite), are the most biologically active environments on glaciers (Boetius et al., 2015).We used whole-metagenomic sequencing to investigate the main functions of six cryoconite holes from Forni (Italian Alps) and six from Baltoro (Pakistani Karakoram) glaciers. We focused on carbon and energy metabolisms by comparing the total coverage of marker genes for photosynthesis, use of inorganic and organic compounds as energy source and autotrophy/heterotrophy. We also used metagenomic sequences for the taxonomic attribution of microorganisms carrying specific metabolic genes Table S4 reports the marker genes whose coverage (mean number per base of reads mapping the genes) was used to infer the abundance of each metabolism. Supplementary Table S5 and Figure 1 report their normalized coverages. Finally, we measured chemical/physical parameters of cryoconite holes and oxygen consumption rates on the days of sampling, both under light and dark conditions (Supplementary Table S3 and Supplementary Figure S2). The main hypothesis tested was whether oxygenic phototrophy and organotrophic respiration represent the only significant metabolisms affecting carbon balance on glacier surface, as currently conceived, or other microbial processes could contribute to it.On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing, Cyanobacteria represented 22 and 3% of the microbial community on Forni and Baltoro, respectively (Supplementary Figure S3). High abundance of cyanobacteria has been already observed in polar and alpine cryoconite (Segawa et al....
Cryoconite holes are small ponds that form on the surface of glaciers that contain a dark debris, the cryoconite, at the bottom and host active ecological communities. Differences in the structure of bacterial communities have been documented among Arctic and mountain glaciers, and among glaciers in different areas of the world. In this study, we investigated the structure of bacterial communities of cryoconite holes of Baltoro Glacier, a large (62 km in length and 524 km of surface) glacier of the Karakoram, by high-throughput sequencing of the V5-V6 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene. We found that Betaproteobacteria dominated bacterial communities, with large abundance of genera Polaromonas, probably thanks to its highly versatile metabolism, and Limnohabitans, which may have been favoured by the presence of supraglacial lakes in the area where cryoconite holes were sampled. Variation in bacterial communities among different sampling areas of the glacier could be explained by divergent selective processes driven by variation in environmental conditions, particularly pH, which was the only environmental variable that significantly affected the structure of bacterial communities. This variability may be due to both temporal and spatial patterns of variation in environmental conditions.
Cryoconite holes, that is, small ponds that form on glacier surface, are considered the most biologically active environments on glaciers. Bacterial communities in these environments have been extensively studied, but often through snapshot studies based on the assumption of a general stability of community structure. In this study, the temporal variation of bacterial communities in cryoconite holes on the Forni Glacier (Italian Alps) was investigated by high throughput DNA sequencing. A temporal change of bacterial communities was observed with autotrophic Cyanobacteria populations dominating communities after snowmelt, and heterotrophic Sphingobacteriales populations increasing in abundance later in the season. Bacterial communities also varied according to hole depth and area, amount of organic matter in the cryoconite and oxygen concentration. However, variation in environmental features explained a lower fraction of the variation in bacterial communities than temporal variation. Temporal change along ablation season seems therefore more important than local environmental conditions in shaping bacterial communities of cryoconite of the Forni Glacier. These findings challenge the assumption that bacterial communities of cryoconite holes are stable.
We investigated the potential contribution of ice-marginal environments to the microbial communities of cryoconite holes, small depressions filled with meltwater that form on the surface of Forni Glacier (Italian Alps). Cryoconite holes are considered the most biologically active environments on glaciers. Bacteria can colonize these environments by short-range transport from ice-marginal environments or by long-range transport from distant areas. We used high throughput DNA sequencing to identify Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) present in cryoconite holes and three ice-marginal environments, the moraines, the glacier forefield, and a large (> 3 m high) ice-cored dirt cone occurring on the glacier surface. Bacterial communities of cryoconite holes were different from those of ice-marginal environments and hosted fewer OTUs. However, a network analysis revealed that the cryoconite holes shared more OTUs with the moraines and the dirt cone than with the glacier forefield. Ice-marginal environments may therefore act as sources of bacteria for cryoconite holes, but differences in environmental conditions limit the number of bacterial strains that may survive in them. At the same time, cryoconite holes host a few OTUs that were not found in any ice-marginal environment we sampled, thus suggesting that some bacterial populations are positively selected by the specific environmental conditions of the cryoconite holes.
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