Abstract.Only recently has specific attention been given to culturable bacteria in Tibetan glaciers, but their relation to atmospheric circulation is less understood yet. Here we present the results of culturable bacteria preserved in an ice core drilled from the East Rongbuk (ER) glacier, Himalayas. The average concentrations of culturable bacteria are 5.0, 0.8, 0.1 and 0.7 CFU mL −1 for the glacier ice deposited during the premonsoon, monsoon, postmonsoon and winter seasons, respectively. The high concentration of culturable bacteria in ER glacier deposited during the premonsoon season is attributed to the transportation of continental dust stirred up by the frequent dust storms during spring. This is also confirmed by the spatial distribution of culturable bacteria in Tibetan glaciers. Continental dust originated from the Northwest China accounts for the high abundance of culturable bacteria in the northern Tibetan Plateau, while monsoon moisture exerts great influence on culturable bacteria with low abundance in the southern plateau. The numbers of representatives with different ARDRA patterns from RFLP analysis are 10, 15, 1 and 2 for the glacial ice deposited during the premonsoon, monsoon, postmonsoon and winter seasons, respectively, suggesting that culturable bacteria deposited in ER glacier during monsoon season are more diverse than that deposited during the other seasons, possibly due to their derivation from both marine air masses and local or regional continental sources, while culturable bacteria deposited during the other seasons are from only one possible origin that is transported by westerlies. Our results show the first report of seasonal variations of abundance and species diversity of culturable bacteria recovered from glacial ice in the Himalayas, and we suggest that microorganisms in Himalayan ice might provide a potential new proxy for the reconstruction of atmospheric circulation.

Aims: To reveal the microbial communities from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau wetland soils that have the potential to be used in the utilization of cellulosic and chitinous biomass at low temperatures (≤25°C). Methods and Results: Soil samples collected from six wetlands on QinghaiTibetan Plateau were supplemented with or without cellulose and chitin flakes, and anaerobically incubated at 25 and 15°C; high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to access the composition and localization (in the slurry and on the surface) of enriched microbial communities; a hypothetical model was constructed to demonstrate the functional roles of involved microbes mainly at genus level. Overall, microbial communities from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau wetlands showed significant potential to convert both cellulose and chitin to methane at low temperatures; Clostridium III, Clostridium XIVa, Paludibacter, Parcubacteria, Saccharofermentans, Pelotomaculum, Methanosaeta, Methanobrevibacter, Methanoregula, Methanospirillum and Methanosarcina participated in methanogenic degradation of both cellulose and chitin through the roles of hydrolytic, saccharolytic and secondary fermenters and methanogens respectively. Acetotrophic methanogens were mainly enriched in the slurries, while hydrogenotrophic methanogens could be both in the slurries and on the surface. Conclusions: The composition and localization of microbial communities that could effectively convert cellulose and chitin to methane at low temperatures have been revealed by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing methods, and reviewing the literatures on the microbial pure culture helped to elucidate functional roles of significantly enriched microbes. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study will contribute to the understanding of carbon and nitrogen cycling of cellulose and chitin in coldarea wetlands and provide fundamental information to obtain microbial resources for the utilization of biomass wastes at low temperatures.

A 11-week growth trial was conducted in a flow-through system with juvenile gibel carp Carassius auratus gibelio to evaluate the effects of gradual replacement of fish meal (FM) by meat and bone meal (MBM) on growth performance, phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) loading. Six isonitrogenous (crude protein: 410 g kg . The results showed that the best growth was achieved with fish fed on the control diet and MBM 20 . Final body weight, weight gain, feed efficiency, protein retention efficiency and energy retention efficiency decreased with increased dietary MBM. No significant differences were found in the feeding rate and hepatosomatic index between the groups. Apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) of dry matter, protein and P decreased with increase in dietary MBM, while there were no significant differences in the ADC of energy. P and N retention decreased linearly while P and N loading increased linearly with the increased dietary MBM levels. No significant differences were observed in the activity of alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, as well as pyruvate kinase in liver or in serum. Total superoxide dismutase activity in MBM 20 was significantly higher than that of MBM 100 .KEY WORDS