Numbers and viability of bacteria in ornithogenic soils of Antarctica

Ramsay, Angela J.; Stannard, Ruth E.

doi:10.1007/bf00446086

Cited by 46 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The increased phylogenetic v www.esajournals.org structuring detected in bacterial communities associated with vulture guano deposition may arise from habitat selection for those individuals that have the ability to utilize uric acid and its byproducts as a nitrogen source. Uric acid is a major component of guano-enriched, ornithogenic soil (Speir and Cowling 1984), which can remain in arid soils (like the soils studied here) for extended periods (Ramsay and Stannard 1986). Relatively high numbers of culturable uric acid degrading bacteria are known to occur in ornithogenic soils (Pietr 1986), including members of genus Psychrobacter, which has been isolated from ornithogenic soil (Bowman et al 1996) as well as penguin guano (Zdanowski et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities associated with vultures in an African savanna

Ganz¹,

Karaöz²,

Getz³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Bird guano has been shown to alter the structure and function of ecological communities.Here we characterize the effects of vulture guano on the phylogenetic structure, taxa richness, and abundance in soil bacterial communities within an African savanna. By altering soil chemistry and nutrient status, vulture guano appears to play a role in influencing the structure of soil bacterial communities. DNA was extracted from soil collected under twenty trees: five African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus, WBV) nesting sites, five lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos, LFV) nesting sites and ten control sites where no sign of vulture activity was detected. Using a high-density phylogenetic microarray (PhyloChip G2), we identified 1,803 bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) in the twenty samples. Analysis of beta-diversity using the Unifrac distance metric demonstrated that WBV nesting sites were phylogenetically distinct from both control trees and LFV nesting sites. We detected a higher degree of phylogenetic clustering in soil bacterial communities associated with both WBV and LFV nesting sites compared to control sites, suggesting that the deposition of guano increases the strength of habitat filtering in these communities. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that variation in OTU intensity (a measure of relative abundance) could be related to variations in pH, electrical conductivity and total nitrogen content. WBV sites explained 10% to 22% of the variation in OTU intensity. The elevated total nitrogen and lower pH characteristic of soils associated with vultures may favor Proteobacteria and suppress Firmicutes, particularly Clostridia and Bacilli. Acidic aggregations of vulture guano may be unlikely to support longterm survival of spore-forming Firmicute pathogens and thus may limit the role that vultures play as potential disease vectors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities associated with vultures in an African savanna

Ganz¹,

Karaöz²,

Getz³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

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“…The bacterial abundance from the above habitats of Antarctica ranged from 0.2 x 10 2 to 0.6 x 10 12 cells/ gram (Carpenter et al, 2000;Priscu et al, 1999;Karl et al, 1999;Delille and Gleizon, 2003), 0.2 x 10 2 to 10 7 cells/ml (Takii et al, 1986;Franzmann et al, 1990;Lo Giudice et al, 2012) and 8 x 10 6 to 2.4 x 10 7 cells/ gram (Lanoil et al, 2009;Stibal et al, 2012) and 10 5 to 10 10 cells/gm (Ramsay and Stannard, 1986;Aislabie et al, 2009) for ice, water, sediment and soil, respectively. Antarctic soils are highly heterogeneous and the diversity varied with respect to soil type.…”

Section: Diversity Of Antarctica As Studied By Noncultivable Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Biodiversity, Cold Adaption and Biotechnological Importance of Bacteria Occurring in Antarctica

Shivaji

2017

Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy

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Antarctica is the coldest, iciest, windiest and driest continent and defines the limits of temperature at which life forms can survive and divide. These cold loving microorganisms are known as psychrophiles and are present in all the unique habitats of Antarctica including permafrost and ice. Their distribution and abundance varies from habitat to habitat and several new genera and species have been discovered in the icy continent. They have several strategies by which they survive and divide at low temperature such as the ability to catalyze reactions and continue metabolism with cold-tolerant enzymes; ability to maintain optimum membrane fluidity at low temperature; occurrence of specific genes required for survival at low temperatures; presence of antifreeze-activity etc.. Enzymes from psychrophilic bacteria have been found to be useful for several purposes ranging from recombinant DNA technology to food processing. The ability of cold-tolerant organisms to degrade petroleum products and other environmental pollutants highlight them as potential candidates for bioremediation in extreme cold environments. The recently reported genome sequences of a number of novel cold-tolerant isolates are likely to provide some more insights into the mechanism of bacterial cryotolerance.

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“…Ornithogenic soils of the Ross Sea region contain similar levels of bacterial diversity to mineral soils in the same region, but differ in abundance and community composition (Aislabie et al 2009). Culture-based methods estimate bacterial abundances at 10 5 -10 7 cells/g of dry soil (Ramsay and Stannard 1986), while direct microscopic counts suggest concentrations are closer to 10 10 cells/g of dry soil (Ramsay and Stannard 1986;Aislabie et al 2009). Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria of the genus Psychrobacter were found to dominate soils colonized by penguins, whereas Actinobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria of the family Xanthomonadaceae were found to dominate soils that had been previously colonized (Aislabie et al 2009).…”

Section: Coastal and Ornithogenic Soilsmentioning

confidence: 99%