Phylogenetic and Physiological Diversity of Microorganisms Isolated from a Deep Greenland Glacier Ice Core

Miteva, Vanya; Sheridan, Peter P.; Brenchley, Jean E.

doi:10.1128/aem.70.1.202-213.2004

Cited by 282 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Brevundimonas, although detected in low numbers at the glacier's edge, developed large populations later in the succession process. Members of this genus have been isolated from various polar habitats, for example, glacial snow in summer (Amato et al 2006), Antarctic soil and lakes, Arctic deep ice core and snow cover, subglacial outflow waters (Cheng and Foght 2007), and also from the Antarctic aerosol over King George Island (Miteva et al 2004;Amato et al 2006;González-Toril et al 2009). Polaromonas sp.…”

Section: Microbial Community Along Transectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culturable bacteria community development in postglacial soils of Ecology Glacier, King George Island, Antarctica

et al. 2012

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Glacier forelands are excellent sites in which to study microbial succession because conditions change rapidly in the emerging soil. Development of the bacterial community was studied along two transects on lateral moraines of Ecology Glacier, King George Island, by culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches (denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis). Environmental conditions such as cryoturbation and soil composition affected both abundance and phylogenetic diversity of bacterial communities. Microbiocenosis structure along transect 1 (severe cryoturbation) differed markedly from that along transect 2 (minor cryoturbation). Soil physical and chemical factors changed along the chronosequence (time since exposure) and influenced the taxonomic diversity of cultivated bacteria, particularly along transect 2. Arthrobacter spp. played a pioneer role and were present in all soil samples, but were most abundant along transect 1. Cultivated bacteria isolated from transect 2 were taxonomically more diverse than those cultivated from transect 1; those from transect 1 tended to express a broader range of enzyme and assimilation activities. Our data suggest that cryoturbation is a major factor in controlling bacterial community development in postglacial soils, shed light on microbial succession in glacier forelands, and add a new parameter to models that describe succession phenomena.

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Section: Microbial Community Along Transectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culturable bacteria community development in postglacial soils of Ecology Glacier, King George Island, Antarctica

et al. 2012

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“…[5] Viable microbes have now been detected in significant concentrations (10 4 -10 7 cells mL À1 ) beneath all types of ice mass, including small valley glaciers [Sharp et al, 1999;Foght et al, 2004], polythermal-based glaciers [Skidmore et al, 2000], ice caps [Gaidos et al, 2004], and the Greenland [Kivimaki, 2004;Christner et al, 2003;Miteva et al, 2004] and Antarctic ice sheets [Mikucki et al, 2004;Christner et al, 2006]. These viable microbes include methanogens, found in basal ice from Greenland (via GISP2 [Tung et al, 2005]) and John Evans Glacier, Canada [Skidmore et al, 2000].…”

Section: Evidence For Methane Production Under Icementioning

confidence: 99%

Subglacial methanogenesis: A potential climatic amplifier?

Wadham

Tranter

Tulaczyk

et al. 2008

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

114

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[1] Subglacial environments are a previously neglected component of the Earth's global carbon cycle, a reflection of the view held until recently that they are dominated by abiotic and oxic conditions. Here we provide a realistic assessment of the theory that the basal regions of the ice sheets that formed over North America and Europe during glaciations were host to significant populations of anaerobic microorganisms, including methanogens, able to metabolize organic carbon sequestered during interglacials and overridden during Quaternary glacials. In doing so, we review the current evidence for subglacial methane release during deglaciation, estimate the size of the subglacial reservoir of organic carbon (SOC), and assess the amount of SOC available to subglacial microbes and the likely pathways and rates of carbon turnover. We then discuss the fate of subglacial methane and the potential impact of its release on atmospheric methane concentrations. We calculate that the SOC equates to 418-610 Pg C and includes carbon from terrestrial soils/vegetation, peatlands, lake, and marine sediments. The SOC that is potentially available for microbial conversion to methane is smaller than this estimate due to (1) glacial erosion, (2) accumulation of recalcitrant organic carbon compounds over time, (3) conversion to carbon dioxide by aerobic/anaerobic respiration, and (4) incomplete conversion of labile organic matter to methane. We estimate that the total SOC available for conversion to methane is 63 Pg C. Our estimates of methane production potentials span a wide range because of the current uncertainty surrounding subglacial metabolic rates. We believe, however, that there is a strong likelihood that subglacial microbes could convert 63 Pg of SOC to methane during a glacial cycle. If this were the case, release of this methane from the ice sheet margins during retreat would need to be episodic in order to significantly impact atmospheric methane concentrations. Our findings suggest that it may well be important to consider subglacial environments as active components of the Earth's carbon cycle. Conclusive determination of the potential impact of subglacial methane production on atmospheric methane concentrations during deglaciation, however, awaits more precise determination of the ability of subglacial microbes to degrade organic carbon components and their associated rates of metabolism under in situ conditions.

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“…In subglacial volcanic settings, mixing of volcanic gases, fluids and minerals, as well as oxygenated glacial meltwater, creates chemical disequilibrium (Giggenbach, 1980;Arnó rsson et al, 1983;Oelkers and Gíslason, 2001;Symonds et al, 2001), and the available energy can be harvested by microorganisms in coupled reduction-oxidation reactions (Gaidos et al, 1999). Populations of such microbes may descend from the original inhabitants of the unglaciated landscape, but may also be released into a lake during basal melting of the glacier in which they were originally entombed (Christner et al, 2000;Miteva et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland

et al. 2012

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Subglacial lakes beneath the Vatnajö kull ice cap in Iceland host endemic communities of microorganisms adapted to cold, dark and nutrient-poor waters, but the mechanisms by which these microbes disseminate under the ice and colonize these lakes are unknown. We present new data on this subglacial microbiome generated from samples of two subglacial lakes, a subglacial flood and a lake that was formerly subglacial but now partly exposed to the atmosphere. These data include parallel 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries constructed using novel primers that span the v3-v5 and v4-v6 hypervariable regions. Archaea were not detected in either subglacial lake, and the communities are dominated by only five bacterial taxa. Our paired libraries are highly concordant for the most abundant taxa, but estimates of diversity (abundance-based coverage estimator) in the v4-v6 libraries are 3-8 times higher than in corresponding v3-v5 libraries. The dominant taxa are closely related to cultivated anaerobes and microaerobes, and may occupy unique metabolic niches in a chemoautolithotrophic ecosystem. The populations of the major taxa in the subglacial lakes are indistinguishable (499% sequence identity), despite separation by 6 km and an ice divide; one taxon is ubiquitous in our Vatnajö kull samples. We propose that the glacial bed is connected through an aquifer in the underlying permeable basalt, and these subglacial lakes are colonized from a deeper, subterranean microbiome.

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Phylogenetic and Physiological Diversity of Microorganisms Isolated from a Deep Greenland Glacier Ice Core

Cited by 282 publications

References 43 publications

Culturable bacteria community development in postglacial soils of Ecology Glacier, King George Island, Antarctica

Culturable bacteria community development in postglacial soils of Ecology Glacier, King George Island, Antarctica

Subglacial methanogenesis: A potential climatic amplifier?

Microbial communities in the subglacial waters of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland

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