Expansion of glacial lakes on Nelson and King George Islands, Maritime Antarctica, from 1986 to 2020

Rosa, Kátia Kellem da; Oliveira, Manoela Araújo Gonçalves de; Petsch, Carina; Auger, Jeffrey D.; Vieira, Rosemary; Simões, Jefferson Cárdia

doi:10.1080/10106049.2021.1886342

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…These changes, often coupled with greater nutrient supply from enhanced hydrological connectivity with the surrounding watershed, will likely also lead to community shifts, including an increase in primary producer biomass (Quayle et al 2002 ). On top of these changes, the creation of new habitats, including lakes and ponds, is anticipated with glacier retreat (Lee et al 2017 ), as has already been observed in Antarctica (Kiernan and McConnell 2002 , da Rosa et al 2022 ) and Earth’s alpine regions (Carrivick and Tweed 2013 ). Yet, it is not clear how these “young” water bodies will compare with older ones in terms of their capacity to harbor local bacterial and microeukaryotic communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Recently formed Antarctic lakes host less diverse benthic bacterial and diatom communities than their older counterparts

Kollár

Kopalová

Kavan

et al. 2023

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

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Glacier recession is creating new waterbodies in proglacial forelands worldwide, including Antarctica. Yet, it is unknown how microbial communities of recently formed ‘young’ waterbodies (originating decades to a few centuries ago) compare with established ‘old’ counterparts (millennia ago). Here, we compared benthic microbial communities of different lake types on James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula, using 16S rDNA metabarcoding and light microscopy to explore bacterial and diatom communities, respectively. We found that the older lakes host significantly more diverse bacterial and diatom communities compared to the young ones. To identify potential mechanisms for these differences, linear models and dbRDA analyses suggested combinations of water temperature, pH, and conductivity to be the most important factors for diversity and community structuring, while differences in geomorphological and hydrological stability, though more difficult to quantify, are likely also influential. These results, along with an indicator species analysis, suggest that physical and chemical constraints associated with individual lakes histories are likely more influential to the assembly of the benthic microbial communities than lake age alone. Collectively, these results improve our understanding of microbial community drivers in Antarctic freshwaters, and help predict how the microbial landscape may shift with future habitat creation within a changing environment.

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