Microbiology of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica

Rapid microbial response to the presence of an ancient relic in the Antarctic Dry Valleys

“…The Dry Valleys comprise one of the most inhospitable, trophically simple ecosystems on Earth 8,9 . Devoid of vascular plant life [8][9][10] , the Dry Valley ecosystem supports only a handful of microscopic invertebrate, lichen and moss species 9,10 .…”

“…Devoid of vascular plant life [8][9][10] , the Dry Valley ecosystem supports only a handful of microscopic invertebrate, lichen and moss species 9,10 . However, the bulk of Dry Valley biodiversity and biomass consists of edaphic bacteria 8,11,12 , as few other organisms can endure the region's extreme temperature and light regimes, high soil salt concentrations, near-negligible levels of organic C and N, and scarcity of liquid water 10,12 . It has been suggested that these soil microbial communities are principally sustained and structured by the location and distribution of legacy C sources in the form of ancient lake sediments [13][14][15][16] .…”

Microbiology of Eutrophic (Ornithogenic and Hydrocarbon-Contaminated) Soil

“…Early-cultivation-based studies successfully isolated and described many bacterial strains (Flint and Stout 1960;Johnson et al 1978); however, these strains probably represent only the small proportion of bacteria that are amenable to culture . As a result, Antarctic soils were reported to be depauperate in terms of bacterial abundance and diversity (Flint and Stout 1960), with many soils reported to be sterile (Horowitz et al 1972). The recent application of molecular techniques has greatly improved the resolution of microbial analyses and revealed that bacterial communities are far more abundant (Cowan et al 2002) and diverse (Tindall 2004;Smith et al 2006;Barrett et al 2006b;Niederberger et al 2008;Cary et al 2010) than initially understood.…”

Sources of edaphic cyanobacterial diversity in the Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica

“…There has been considerable debate on assembly and viability of biotic communities in Dry Valley soils. It has been suggested that algae and cyanobacteria present in these mineral soils are not actively growing, but are derived from more suitable environments (for example, lakes) and are transported to the valley floors by wind (Horowitz et al, 1972;Broady, 1996;Cavacini, 2001;Aislabie et al, 2006). Aeolian distribution of freeze-dried mats from lakes and ponds has been documented (for example, Parker et al, 1982;Moorhead et al, 2003).…”